U.S. EPA Initiates Project to Focus Attention on Illegal Imports and Exports That May Affect the Environment
By Dana Bilkiss, U.S. EPA, Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, International Compliance Assurance Division, Bilkiss.Dana at epa.gov

The global community recognizes the importance of protecting the environment and regulating industries that negatively impact human health and the environment. Most nations are parties to several multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) which limit the types and amounts of substances and items that can be transported.

The Basel Convention, for instance, governs the transboundary movement of hazardous wastes and their disposal. The Montreal Protocol regulates the type and amount of substances produced and traded that harm the stratospheric ozone layer. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) protects endangered wildlife by criminalizing the capturing, killing, and trading of certain species so that the species is not exploited unsustainably. The Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade (PIC) provides that both importing and exporting nations need to consent to the movement of certain restricted chemicals. The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) serves to restrict then ban the most toxic chemicals created.

The International Assurance Compliance Division of the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is currently assembling a training course and manual for international environmental and customs officers as well as their managers. The course will serve as a means of educating these key officials on the five MEAs so that they may be more effective in their work. By training managers and frontline officers, the intent is to create a uniform and consistent way of learning about illegal substances and how to deal with them.

On a daily basis, customs officers deal with a multitude of items and substances entering and exiting their countries. They must make quick, well informed decisions that will likely affect the economy, people, and environment of their countries. With a heightened sense of national security and terrorism, a high priority now exists regarding weapons and narcotics. The importance, however, remains, for the restriction of substances and things that harm our ecosystems, environment, natural resources, health, and safety.

Customs officers alone are not necessarily capable of dealing with hazardous waste or other substances illegal for environmental reasons. They must know how to recognize them and when to call in environmental officers or other skilled officials first to monitor compliance and then to proceed to build a case against the criminal. Only teamwork with environmental officers will enable customs officers to consistently catch criminals and prevent the importation and exportation of certain items. The customs officers also facilitate the reduction and elimination of illegal trade in environmentally sensitive items covered by each specific MEA while protecting and facilitating legal trade when they can knowledgeably clear shipments that are legitimate, as most are.

The proposed training course will last three and a half days. Each MEA will be described in a lecture, illustrated by a series of scenarios, and discussed through a facilitated interactive exercise which will provide the training participants with an opportunity to negotiate their way through an actual situation. These materials will be compiled by the U.S. EPA, which plans to develop the course with the cooperation of the UN Environment Programme, World Customs Organization, and INECE. The course will belong to them and any responsible collaborator that could address the global problem of ensuring compliance with the MEAs. The course and manual will not be copyrighted, providing each nation with the ability to use and adapt them as necessary to fit with their national laws and policies. A pilot course is tentatively planned to take place in Central America next year.