INECE 7th Int'l Conference To Be Held in Marrakech in April 2005

The world's foremost experts on environmental enforcement and compliance will gather in the historic city of Marrakech, Morocco, in April 2005, for a week of plenary discussions, topical workshops, field visits, and internationally renown keynote speakers at the INECE 7th International Conference.

More than 200 high-level government officials and international and non-governmental representatives from more than 100 countries will convene from 10-15 April 2005 in Marrakech, a beautiful city at the foot of the High Atlas Mountains with many idyllic gardens surrounded by the famous 12th century Red Ochre Ramparts.

The list of invitees includes Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai, United Nations Environment Programme Executive Director Klaus Topfer, and the heads of environment ministries of Morocco, Costa Rica, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

The INECE Conference will feature a series of panel discussions on a diverse array of topics, such as the relationship between good governance and compliance and enforcement. This panel will discuss how compliance and enforcement are key building blocks to rule of law, good governance, and sustainable development. It will also emphasize improving communication between lawmakers and enforcement practitioners to ensure better legislation. The panel will explore the environmental compliance and enforcement roles of civil society, environmental ministries, parliamentarians, judges and the press as well as consider ways to confront corruption and ensure transparency.

Other panel topics include environmental compliance and enforcement indicators, the implementation and enforcement of multilateral environmental agreements, and compliance and enforcement in the context of development banks.

The INECE Conference will also conduct more than 24 workshops covering such issues as the economic aspects of compliance and enforcement, communications policies, enforcement mechanisms to support emissions trading, penalty policies and judicial remedies, and criminal law and the environment. The organisation of selected sessions of the Conference is supported by the OECD in the framework of the OECD Global Forum on Sustainable Development.

On 9 April, INECE will co-sponsor a Regional Conference for local and regional professionals on issues of particular relevance to Morocco, North Africa, and the Mediterranean. This program is being developed in conjunction with the Moroccan Ministry of Environment, the Mohammed the VI Foundation, and the Local Advisory Committee. Issues for consideration include compliance strategies for reducing urban waste, the role of NGOs in achieving compliance, investigation techniques, enforcement as a component of integrated fresh water management, coastal pollution issues, using indicators to measure performance, and enforcement of eco-tourism standards.

The Regional Conference will be followed by a day of enforcement training, during which INECE will present courses for participants and local practitioners that are designed to build capacity for implementing compliance and enforcement programs. These courses will encourage discussions among conference participants on how to implement national goals, laws, and requirements in a manner that effectively changes behavior in society and achieves desired environmental results. At least one course will focus on good governance and enforcement as applied to water issues.

Mid-week, conference participants will explore the surrounding Moroccan countryside with a choice of at least five different field visits intended to provide local examples of many of the environmental issues highlighted in conference discussions. Conference participants will also be treated to a cultural evening that will showcase traditional Moroccan cuisine and music.

The INECE Secretariat is currently soliciting papers for the 7th Conference Proceedings. The deadline for submissions is Monday, 17 January 2005. The INECE Secretariat requests that submissions be in English and sent via email to the INECE Secretariat at inece@inece.org.

More conference information is available on the INECE Web site at http://inece.org/conference/7/.

The Environment Agency for England and Wales in the United Kingdom and INECE co-sponsored a workshop in March 2004 to discuss key issues of enforcement and compliance in emissions trading scheme in anticipation of the European Union's cap-and-trade scheme set to take effect in January 2005.

The workshop, held at Worcester College in Oxford, England, provided significant learning and networking opportunities for senior figures within environmental regulatory authorities.

The first day of the workshop focused on the use of trading from the perspective of the continents of Europe, North America, and Asia with a detailed discussion on the experiences gained throughout the world in the use of trading in environmental protection.

The trading schemes discussed included: the UK Greenhouse Gas scheme, presented by the UK Minister for Environment; the proposed Nitrogen Oxide trading scheme in the Netherlands; salinity and nutrient trading in Australia; sulfur dioxide trading in the United States, and the upcoming EU trading scheme.

Sir John Harman, Chairman of the Environment Agency, delivered the keynote address in which he highlighted the importance of trading in the Environment Agency's efforts to modernize regulation.

In a summary of the day's discussions, Dr. Dieter Helm, Fellow at New College, Oxford, and the workshop's chairman for the first day, emphasized the benefits of emissions trading and the need to establish success criteria. Importantly, he reviewed some of the barriers to successful implementation of trading schemes and, for carbon trading in particular, advocated a global approach and the establishment of an institution that could oversee its operation.

Following a very stimulating day, delegates enjoyed a wonderful dinner in the Main Hall at Worcester College where Baroness Barbara Young, Chief Executive of the Environment Agency, made the after-dinner speech.

The second day of the workshop covered views from industry, environmental campaign groups, and the finance sector on the need for effective compliance and enforcement practices for trading schemes. The discussions highlighted the issue of ensuring credible and independent approaches to monitoring and compliance assessment, as well as the overall cost of undertaking these functions. A particular concern was the potential for varying degrees of rigor in compliance and enforcement activities where multi-country trading schemes are used.

Five points emerged from the concluding open debate:

• The need to spend time developing effective enforcement policies;
• The importance of compliance and enforcement in establishing a liquid market;
• Trading schemes bring about a shift in regulatory emphasis from defining engineering solutions to specifying environmental outcomes;
• The awareness of raising both for the regulators and the regulated is crucial for trading schemes to be successful; and
• The need for a consistent approach to compliance and enforcement is vital where a trading scheme operates across many countries.

The use of trading as a policy instrument in environmental protection is still in its infancy. There is, therefore, a need to share widely what knowledge there is in implementing trading schemes.

To help this, a report of the main findings of the workshop will be issued soon and made available on both the INECE and Environment Agency Web sites. Participants recognized at the workshop that INECE could play a valuable role in raising awareness internationally in the application of trading schemes and assisting in the quest to identify good practice in the field of compliance and enforcement. Regulators interested in using INECE for this purpose should contact the INECE Secretariat via email at inece@inece.org.

For additional information on the workshop, including links to the final agenda and background paper, please see http://www.inece.org/emissions/.

New Strategies to Combat Illegal Timber Trafficking Spearheaded by INECE and EIA

INECE and the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) gathered leading environmental enforcement and compliance experts in Bangkok, Thailand, in October 2004, to develop an integrated regional enforcement strategy to combat rising illegal timber trafficking in Southeast Asia.

At the meeting, held in the United Nations Conference Center on 18-19 October, experts reviewed case studies and existing enforcement policies and practices and identified the key obstacles to effective enforcement, which included corruption, lack of a clear chain of responsibility, and institutional rigidity and restrictions.

Building on existing enforcement methodologies such as improving transparency and developing local and regional enforcement cooperation networks that have been championed by INECE and EIA, the meeting resulted in a set of six recommended tasks that will help guide the ongoing efforts to strengthen enforcement capacity.

The recommended tasks are:

1. Develop a regional cooperative agreement.
2. Facilitate information sharing.
3. Establish a system of contact points.
4. Formalize sharing information within and/or among agencies.
5. Document certification procedures.
6. Identify loopholes in existing legislation.

INECE and EIA plan to work with local enforcement practitioners to implement these recommended tasks. INECE will seek to apply the results of this meeting to other illegal timber trafficking hotspots, such as the Amazon Basin.

For more information about the meeting, please visit the INECE Web site at http://www.inece.org/illegaltimber/.

INECE to Coordinate with IUCN Enforcement Specialist Group

The Commission on Environmental Law of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) recently formed a Specialist Group that will be the focus for enforcement and compliance issues within IUCN. INECE and the Specialist Group are working together on several current projects that focus on the "green" enforcement and compliance agenda (forests, wetlands, protected areas, marine reserves, endangered species, etc.).

As a network of environmental compliance and enforcement stakeholders, INECE benefits from new and ongoing collaborations with organizations working to improve environmental enforcement at the international, national, and local levels.

Several INECE Executive Planning Committee members, including Durwood Zaelke, Antonio Benjamin, and Bill Futrell are serving on the IUCN Specialist Group or working closely with the Group. This should ensure ongoing coordination between the organizations and help build stronger enforcement programs worldwide.

"We agreed that a focus on the "green" enforcement and compliance agenda (forests, wetlands, protected areas, marine reserves, endangered species, etc.) was the best way to bring additional attention to enforcement issues, build on the strengths that IUCN brings to the table, and avoid duplicating the important work already being undertaken by INECE," says Lee Paddock, Chair of the Specialist Group.

In the first of a series of joint efforts, INECE and the Specialist Group cosponsored a workshop at IUCN's quadrennial World Conservation Congress, held in Bangkok in November 2004. At the workshop, an international panel of experts presented emerging results of ongoing indicators pilot projects, with a focus on how indicators can assist "green" enforcement issues, and discussed the benefits and challenges of compliance and enforcement indicators programs. (See "INECE Leads Indicators Workshop at IUCN World Congress" in this edition.)

INECE and the Specialist Group are now working to develop a potential panel discussions and workshops for the 7th INECE Conference in Marrakech. INECE and the Specialist Group will also cosponsor the 2006 IUCN Academy of Environmental Law Colloquium to be held at Pace University focusing on enforcement and compliance issues. The Colloquium is designed to join state-of-the-art academic thinking with the experience of enforcement practitioners to improve enforcement programs. Focus areas for the Colloquium include: maximizing compliance with international treaties and conventions, compliance indicators, enforcement tools and instruments, communicating the "value" of enforcement, the effect of enforcement on organizational behavior, the impact of trade agreements on enforcement and alternative modes of preventing or resolving enforcement disputes.

For further information, please contact Lee Paddock at lpaddock@law.pace.edu.