Gerthie Mayo-Anda
Philippines
Grizelda Mayo-Anda is the co-founder and executive director of the Environmental Legal Assistance Center (ELAC), a Filipino non-government organization committed to helping communities to uphold their constitutional right to a healthful and balanced ecology. She is also a lawyer with over 25 years of field-based practice in environmental advocacy, as well as a professor at the Palawan State University College of Law.
As one of the most mineralized countries in the world, the Philippines has seen its mining industry strive over the past decades. However, this expansion has come with considerable environmental and social costs for the local communities, and accidents often have lasting consequences for the environment. Aside from mining, the ELAC works on cases related to forestry exploitation, fisheries management, and poaching. In relation to mining cases, Mayo-Anda was involved in the Marcopper case. ‘Recently, we won a case against the mining company Marcopper, who was responsible for one of the worst mining disasters that ever hit the Philippines’.