The Webinar "Using Environmental Law Tools Address Global Pandemics in the Americas" explored the role of environmental law to prevent global health pandemics. 

The  event, co-chaired by IUCN-WCEL Steering Committee Members, Professor Nicholas Bryner and Claudia de Windt, incorporated the leading voices of Ana María Hernández, Chair of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), Yovana Murillo, Wildlife Trade Andean Coordinator for Wildlife Conservation Society, Ricardo Lorenzetti, Judge of the Supreme Court of Justice of Argentina, and Elvis Rodas, Minister of Environment of Honduras and Pro-Tempore Chair of the Central American Commission on Environment and Development (CCAD) of the Central American Integration System (SICA).

Webinar Panelists focused on factors related to enforcement of environmental law that have influenced the natural evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic. Panelists analyzed regional responses within the framework of the environmental rule of law and considered how environmental law serves as a tool to prevent future pandemics. They concluded that effective implementation of wildlife trade legislation is necessary to achieve healthy ecosystems.

The Panelist presentations are available here:

• At a crossroads of Human Ecosystems, Species and Planet Health (Ana Maria Hernandez)

• Wildlife trafficking and the pandemic, ideas to rethink our relationship with nature (Yovana Murillo)

• Environmental Rule of Law, Concepts and Responses (Ricardo Lorenzetti)

• On Pathway to Green Reconstruction: Policy tools to Avert the Next Pandemic (Elvis Rodas)

A full recording if the Webinar is available here:

WCEL is grateful to CCAD for the collaboration in this effort.

For more information about this webinar, as well as future webinars in the series, please visit the WCEL Webinar Series page.