INECE Selects Morocco as Site for its 7th International Conference in Spring 2005
INECE has begun planning for its 7th International Conference, which will be held in Morocco in Spring 2005. The Conference will feature a full program of panels, workshops, and field visits for the participants selected to attend this event. Regional network representatives will lead the nomination process for invitations.

The Conference will give special attention to environmental compliance and enforcement indicators as a means to better measure and manage performance. In addition, the Conference will emphasize INECE's enhanced regional cooperation and networks, adopt new methods for measuring success, and generally raise awareness about the importance of compliance and enforcement efforts. INECE is planning advance training sessions on its "Principles of Enforcement on Enforcement and Compliance" in conjunction with the conference.

Previous INECE conferences have successfully showcased emerging work in the field of international environmental enforcement, provided excellent opportunities for professionals to broaden their contact networks, and resulted in the development of enforcement and compliance resources, including the 2002 "Call to Action" and the "Principles of Environmental Enforcement."

As one 6th Conference participant commented, "I thought this was an excellent conference. I have been to a lot of conferences and this one was one of the best I have attended. Well organized, stayed on time, a good mix of workshops and sessions and a terrific opportunity for people to interface, get to know each other, and form relationships. I think there is great potential for follow through with implementation of good ideas that were expressed."

Further information will be available through the INECE Web site at http://www.inece.org or through the Office of the INECE Secretariat at inece@inece.org.

INECE AND OECD Team to Strengthen Environmental Compliance and Enforcement: Measuring What Matters To Promote Enforcement
To promote effective environmental compliance and enforcement, INECE and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) convened more than 50 high-level practitioners and experts in Paris, France, to advance the development and use of environmental compliance and enforcement indicators in November 2003.

The attendees represented more than 20 developed, transitional, and developing countries as well as international organizations, multilateral environmental agreement secretariats, and non-governmental organizations. This expert workshop, held at OECD headquarters in Paris, featured a lively and insightful discussion and affirmed the clear mandate for the INECE worldwide project on ECE indicators. The workshop participants reached a consensus on the need for additional work, including:

	development of reliable, harmonized, and easily understandable indicators.
	agreement on a common set of definitions regarding environmental compliance and enforcement indicators.
	augmentation of the good practices identified at the workshop with additional experiences with environmental compliance and enforcement indicators.
	publication of guiding principles for the development and use of environmental compliance and enforcement indicators.
	implementation of pilot projects in several countries of diverse economic and geographic scope.

The INECE Secretariat and INECE participants will implement the next phase of the Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Indicators project with assistance from a grant from Environment Canada.

Environmental compliance and enforcement indicators are critical to the work that many countries are undertaking to strengthen their national environmental compliance and enforcement programs. Environmental compliance and enforcement indicators aid in monitoring compliance and enforcement programs and evaluating how well they are performing in response to priority environmental problems and in targeting resources efficiently.

Environmental compliance and enforcement indicators, in general, serve three major purposes:

	ECE indicators assist program management in monitoring operations of compliance and enforcement programs.
	ECE indicators enhance the accountability of environmental compliance and enforcement programs.
	ECE indicators provide a framework to assess the performance of environmental compliance and enforcement programs.

Leading up to the workshop, an international team of experts collaborated on an extensive workshop background paper. The background paper established a common framework for the workshop's discussion and dramatically increased the workshop's productivity. The workshop background paper is available through the INECE Web page at http://inece.org/indicators/workshop.html.

The workshop featured presentations from developed, transitional, and developing country experts. These presentations provided experiences with ECE indicators as well as guidance for further development of ECE indicators. Versions of these presentations are also available through the INECE Web site at http://inece.org/indicators/workshop.html.

As a concept, "what gets measured gets enforced" underscores the importance of the Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Indicators project. As the Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Indicators project moves into its next phase, INECE and its participants will be working to ensure that the Indicators measure what matters. This way, countries with limited resources will be able to pursue enforcement and compliance more efficiently and more effectively.

INECE Partners with Environment Agency (England and Wales) on the Enforcement of Emissions Trading Programs
In response to the European Union's (EU) decision to cap greenhouse gas emissions and establish an emissions trading scheme, the Environment Agency (England and Wales) and INECE will co-sponsor a workshop to discuss and debate enforcement and compliance issues associated with emissions trading schemes in March 2004 at Oxford University.

The workshop will be held at Worcester College at Oxford University, in one of the United Kingdom's most beautiful cities, on 17-19 March 2004. Key speakers will include the Chairman and Chief Executive of the Environment Agency, government ministers, senior officials from the European Commission, high-level officials from environmental agencies, executives from the industrial sector, and representatives of civil society groups. The workshop will also bring together other key stakeholders to provide significant learning and networking opportunities for senior officials.

Emissions trading schemes represent a promising mechanism to fight global climate change. They offer economic incentives that reward countries and industries that reduce emissions below target levels - rewards that can be continuously reinvested in emission abatement.

The UK has set the pace for the EU emissions trading scheme by being the first country to publish its National Allocation Plan, which outlines how it will allocate its EU Emission Allowances. Member States must finalize their National Allocation Plans by the end of March 2004, and the first phase of emissions caps takes effect in 2005.

In its National Allocation Plans, the UK committed to a lower emissions cap than the one stated in the Kyoto Protocol Commitment of the British Government to lead the way in fighting the cause of climate change and to encourage others to follow their example. By partnering with INECE to host this workshop, the UK's leadership and expertise will be shared throughout INECE.

The draft agenda for the workshop may be found at http://inece.org/news/agenda.pdf.

INECE to Publish The Best of Enforcement and Compliance Literature
Environmental enforcement and compliance has emerged as a distinct and critically important field of study for scholars, practitioners and policymakers. In a forthcoming book, INECE will gather the best of the literature from around the world into a definitive work on this dynamic subject.

The book, scheduled for publication later this year, will draw upon past INECE conference proceedings and other published works by renowned authors. It will also select new articles to showcase the leading practices, policies, and scholarship dealing with environmental implementation, enforcement, and compliance around the world.

The book will be co-edited by Durwood Zaelke, Donald Kaniaru and Eva Kružíková. Mr. Zaelke is the Director of the INECE Secretariat and co-founder and co-director of the Program on Governance for Sustainable Development at the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara. During the last three decades, Mr. Kaniaru participated in all aspects of UNEP’s work, including serving as director of its Division of Environmental Policy and Implementation and its Environmental Law and Institutions Programme Activity Centre. Ms. Kružíková is co-director of the Institute for Environmental Policy, the former head of the Legislation and International relations departments of the Czech Ministry of Environment, a ministry she was instrumental in establishing, and has served as a member of the Environmental Advisory Council for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Leading authors including Peter Sand, Oran Young, Paul Leinster, Jeffrey Sachs, Dan Esty, Michael Porter, Stuart Hart, and Ron Mitchell have contributed articles as well as enthusiastic feedback on the evolving structure and content of the book. The INECE enforcement book will serve as an important capacity building tool and has received support from Environment Canada, the Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic, and the Netherlands Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning, and the Environment.

A draft version of the table of contents can be found at: http://inece.org/bestof.html.