CV: Cormac Patrick Cullinan

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Cormac is one of the most experienced environmental lawyers in Southern Africa and has an international reputation particularly for his pioneering work in proposing a new approach to law in his book “Wild Law”.  He first practiced as a maritime lawyer in Durban before working as a commercial and tax lawyer in Luxembourg and London.

Since 1992, Cormac has worked as a specialist environmental lawyer with clients at international, regional, national, provincial and local levels. He has worked in the following countries: Angola, Botswana, Cyprus, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Estonia, Germany, Lesotho, Luxembourg, Malawi, Malaysia, Malta, Namibia, Russia, South Africa, Surinam, Swaziland, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, United Kingdom, United States of America and Zambia.

His skills include drafting contracts, legislation and international agreements; negotiation, advising clients, litigating, writing opinions and accessible reports and explanations of the law, analysing and strengthening governance frameworks (laws, policies and institutions), training and teaching. He has a reputation for developing innovative solutions and in 2008 the firm’s sister company, EnAct International, became the first service company to win a special commendation for innovation in the Mail & Guardian “Greening the Future” awards.

He has experience and expertise in many specialist fields including the regulation of air pollution, land use planning and control, contaminated land, fresh water, the sea, integrated coastal management, environmental and heritage impact assessment, biological diversity and protected areas (including transboundary parks), aquaculture, fisheries, forestry, agriculture, pesticides, plant quarantine, mining and oil and gas exploitation, bio-safety and genetically modified organisms, waste management, and enforcement.

He has led the drafting teams responsible for drafting: the SADC Forests Protocol; the Lake Tanganyika Convention, a draft Agreement and Convention on the Benguela Current Large Marine Ecosystem, the Integrated Coastal Management Bill in South Africa, a Waste Prevention and Management Bill for KwaZulu-Natal, an integrated land use planning, environment and heritage Bill in the Western Cape; the Land Use Management Bill for the North West Province;  the environmental laws of Swaziland and Malta and draft wildlife legislation in Namibia, as well as local government bylaws and laws dealing with aquaculture, forestry, fisheries, pesticides, marine conservation and other issues in many other countries.

Publications

	"Recent trends in monitoring, control and surveillance systems for capture fisheries", by Flewelling, P; Cullinan, C; Sautter, R.P. and Reynolds, J.E. FAO Fisheries Technical Paper 415, Rome, FAO, 2002
	“Wild Law” Siberink, 2002, Green Law, 2003
	"Law and markets - Improving the legal environment for agricultural marketing" FAO, 2000, AGS Bulletin, No. 139
	"Land Ownership and Foreigners: A Comparative Analysis of Regulatory Approaches to the Acquisition and Use of Land by Foreigners." FAO Legal Papers Online, 1999
	Author of legal section of Integrated coastal area management and agriculture, forestry and fisheries. FAO Guidelines (Scialabba, N (ed.)) Environment and Natural Resource Service, FAO, Rome. 256p
	"Legal and institutional aspects of integrated coastal area management in national legislation." FAO Legislative study, 1994 (118 pages)