A Message from
the President and
Chairman

ELI has had an important year highlighted by a new President and Chairman, new initiatives, and important accomplishments.

In surveying ELI’s 2011 accomplishments, what is most striking is the breadth and depth of the activities ELI’s staff undertake to advance ELI’s vision of a healthy environment, prosperous economies, and vibrant communities founded on the rule of law. ELI works with high-level government officials to help them understand the role of natural resources in peacebuilding and to provide environmental law training to Supreme Court justices from countries around the world. ELI also works with local fishing communities in the Gulf of Mexico and the Arctic to ensure that grassroots environmental law and policy work for local people. We convene, publish, debate, and research—guided by our vision and our core principles of providing independent, nonpartisan, merits research and analysis.

ELI’s Environmental Law Reporter® is the most cited environmental law journal in the nation. The Environmental Forum is the premier policy magazine for professionals in environmental law, policy, and management. Contributors to these publications are senior government officials, members of Congress, leading law professors, and expert practitioners. In 2011, we published five books on topics ranging from Everyday Environmentalism to a Practical Guide to Environmental Management. We produced the first publication of a four-year groundbreaking research project on the key role that natural resources play in post-conflict peacebuilding: High-Value Natural Resources and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding. The project was initiated by ELI and the United Nations Environment Programme. Three additional books will be published in 2012.

Education and training, always a core value of ELI, hit new highs this past year with over 60 seminars, courses, and special events attended by thousands of environmental professionals. ELI convened a policy discussion program on EPA’s impact on the economy involving congressional staff and key think-tank analysts to separate fact from fiction and improve policymakers’ understanding of this key issue. ELI’s ongoing renewable energy seminar series in California continues to draw significant audiences. ELI’s world-renowned judicial training program has now reached over 1,000 judges in 24 different countries. In Jamaica, ELI staff trained 50 judges from Jamaica, Bermuda, Trinidad and Tobago, and Guyana on natural resources law, including methods for determining the value of natural resources damage. In South America, ELI trained 100 prosecutors from the Brazilian Amazon region.

Our research program is ELI’s flagship, with over 50 ongoing projects funded by grants from foundations, federal and state agencies, international organizations, and individuals. As part of our alternative energy program, we completed two studies that examine how state and local governments can site and permit large new wind facilities and other offshore energy sources. Our Water Program convened a national gathering of 40 state representatives to address Clean Water Act newly developed total maximum daily load requirements. The Water Program also issued a new handbook that assessed the nation’s portfolio of vulnerable aquatic resources. Meanwhile, our Ocean Program focused on the Gulf of Mexico and the Arctic. Following the catastrophic Deepwater Horizon oil spill, we issued two reports on Gulf restoration and conducted a series of ELI workshops in the Gulf states to train communities on how to participate effectively in natural resource restoration efforts. Working with local residents in the Arctic to identify their needs, we prepared a handbook on the new national ocean policy and its application to subsistence resource users in the U.S. Arctic.

Finally, ELI is famous for our annual award celebration, and 2011 was an outstanding success. In November, over 700 people attended the largest environmental law gathering of the year, which honored Secretary of Energy and Nobel Prize winner Steven Chu. We also organized the National Wetlands Awards program to honor six local wetlands heroes from across the country for their achievements in landowner stewardship, science, education, and outreach.

We thank ELI’s many members, donors, volunteers, and friends for their indispensable contributions to ELI’s success. We also thank our extraordinary staff and Board of Directors, who are leaders in their communities and whose accomplishments have advanced environmental protection.