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Secretariat Year End Letter
2004
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Dear Friends,
On behalf of the International Network for Environmental Compliance
and Enforcement, it is my privilege to report on the progress of
our network during 2004.
Thanks to the active assistance of a growing number of INECE participants,
this year the network made great strides toward our goal of strengthening
the fundamental role that environmental compliance and enforcement
plays in building the foundation for the rule of law, good governance,
and, ultimately, for sustainable development.
When reviewing the following highlights, we encourage you to follow
the links to the INECE web site for further information on our progress
implementing the INECE Strategic Plan:
- Expanding the INECE Network. INECE continued to add new
participants throughout the year, and currently has approximately
4,000 participants from over 150 countries, representing national,
state, and local environmental departments; enforcement authorities;
international and national nongovernmental organizations; academia;
and the private sector. http://www.inece.org/overview/structure.html
- Expanding the INECE Executive Planning Committee. INECE
welcomed three new members to the Executive Planning Committee:
· Jim Gray, Director, Environmental Protection
Directorate, Environment Agency (England and Wales);
· Professor Aiko Morishima, Chairman, Institute for
Global Environmental Strategies, Japan; and
· Bill Clark, Nature and National Parks Protection
Authority, Israel, and the Interpol Wildlife Enforcement
Group. |
- Sharing the INECE Message on Environmental Compliance &
Enforcement. INECE shared its enforcement message through
a record number of presentations at international and regional
meetings, including:
| · EU Network for the Implementation & Enforcement
of Environmental Law meetings in Dublin, Ireland and Amsterdam,
the Netherlands. |
| · Balkan Environmental Regulatory Compliance &
Enforcement Network meeting in Brussels, Belgium. |
| · OECD Conference on Economic Aspects of Environmental
Compliance Assurance in Paris, France. |
| · IUCN World Conservation Congress in Bangkok,
Thailand. |
| · UN Climate Change Convention Tenth Conference
of the Parties in Buenos Aires, Argentina. |
| · International Maritime Organization GloBallast
Conference in Tehran, Iran. |
| · Performance Measures for Compliance and Enforcement
Workshop in Ottawa, Canada. |
| · World Bank/ECLAC Latin American Indicators meeting
in Santiago, Chile. |
| · Asia Regional Compliance & Enforcement Network
meeting in Bangkok. |
| · INECE/EIA Timber Enforcement Workshop in Bangkok. |
Several of the presentations are available at http://www.inece.org/library/presentations.html
- Using Networks to Strengthen Governance for Sustainable Development.
INECE was featured as a leading example of the critical role
transnational government networks serve in global governance in
Professor Anne-Marie Slaughter's recent book A New World
Order (Princeton University Press 2004). Professor
Slaughter, who is the Dean at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public
& International Affairs at Princeton University, singled out
INECE and noted out work with UNEP in promoting enforcement and
compliance at the Global Judicial Forum in Johannesburg. Professor
Slaughter was one of INECE's best promoters last year, using INECE
as an outstanding example in her presentations, including:
- Publishing Enforcement News and Best of Book. INECE published
and distributed two issues of the INECE Newsletter and periodic
press releases on our activities. http://inece.org/news.html
INECE also edited a "Best of Enforcement" book, with
a selection of the best INECE conference papers, as well as articles
by other renowned authors in the fields of environmental implementation,
enforcement, and compliance. The book will be available at the
7th Conference.
- Developing Indicators for Environmental Compliance &
Enforcement. The INECE Indicators Expert Working Group helped
launch an indicators pilot project for Costa Rican forestry law
enforcement. They also developed a working draft of Performance
Measurement Guidance for Compliance and Enforcement Practitioners.
INECE also hosted an "e-dialogue" on best practices
for identifying environmental compliance and enforcement indicators,
and presented its indicator work to audiences in Bangkok, Santiago,
Amsterdam, Brussels, and elsewhere on the benefits of performance
measurement and strategies for developing appropriate indicators.
INECE launched a new indicator pilot project with UNEP focusing
on implementation, compliance, and enforcement of multilateral
environmental agreements. http://www.inece.org/forumsindicators.html
- Promoting Enforcement Strategies for Emission Trading Programs.
In cooperation with the Environment Agency (England and Wales),
INECE organized and hosted a workshop in March 2004 at Oxford
University of expert stakeholders from government, international
institutions, the non-governmental community, and the private
sector as the first step in developing a comprehensive strategy
to ensure full compliance with emissions reduction commitments
and with trading regulations. Participants reinforced the conclusion
that strong enforcement mechanisms are critical to the success
of trading schemes and called for INECE to continue its efforts
to identify best practices for compliance and enforcement and
share knowledge across regions to strengthen global trading systems.
http://www.inece.org/emissions/index.html
- Fostering Enforcement Cooperation to Address Illegal Logging.
INECE and the Environmental Investigation Agency brought together
regional experts from Southeast Asia to develop strategies for
"Increasing Enforcement Cooperation to Control Transboundary
Trade in Illegally Produced Logs and Timber." http://www.inece.org/illegaltimber/
- Providing Comparative Enforcement Data for Judges. INECE
is developing a database on comparative judicial remedies to show
how judges around the world remedy environmental violations in
their societies. This will include comparative data on penalty
policies and a "penalty calculator" based on the best
practices around the world. http://www.inece.org/news/120304_iucnjudgestalk.pdf
- Expanding Capacity Building and Training. INECE revised
the Principles of Enforcement text to reflect INECE's global
experience and delivered training courses on the Principles
of Enforcement, as well as a new course, Environmental
Law & Enforcement to Strengthen Water Governance, which
is being developing in conjunction with the Smithsonian Institute
and UNDP's "Institute@" program. INECE also developed
a set of Class Exercises for UNEP's Training Manual on Environmental
Law. http://www.inece.org/enforcementprinciples.html
- Developing a Research Agenda. INECE and the Program on
Governance for Sustainable Development at the University of California,
Santa Barbara, assembled a group of experts at the Bren School
of Environmental Science & Management to develop a research
agenda to promote empirical data-driven analysis that can help
identify efficient and effective enforcement and compliance strategies.
INECE also is collaborating with IUCN to develop the environmental
law component of the research agenda and will co-sponsor IUCN's
2006 Colloquium Implementing Environmental Legislation: The
Critical Role of Enforcement and Compliance.
- Utilizing the Web to Facilitate Communications Among Experts.
Traffic at the INECE Web site grew 67% from 2003, and the site
now receives approximately 150,000 hits and 15,000 unique visits
per month. The content also continued to expand throughout the
year to provide access to relevant news and events, background
information, and publications on the benefits and challenges of
environmental enforcement in the Americas, Europe, Asia and the
Pacific, and Africa. The Web site continued to profile current
events and online resources in topical forums on Hazardous Waste,
Enforcement Indicators, Inspectors, Public Access to Information,
Ozone, Pesticides, Wildlife, and Water. INECE also launched its
first real-time online discussion this year, which allowed 62
practitioners from 21 countries to confer on good practices for
identifying compliance and enforcement indicators.
- Planning the 7th International Conference. INECE is well
into its planning for the 7th International Conference for Environmental
Compliance & Enforcement, which will be held from 10 -15 April
2005, in Marrakech, Morocco. The 7th Conference Program builds
upon the INECE goals, showcases current INECE activities, and
includes discussion on topics such as the Compliance & Enforcement
Message; the Relationship Between Good Governance and Compliance
& Enforcement; Strengthening Implementation of MEAs; Indicators
for Compliance & Enforcement; and Compliance & Enforcement
in the Context of Development Banks. In addition to the International
Conference, INECE also is co-sponsoring a Regional Conference
on 9 April 2005 and a day of enforcement training on 10 April
2005. http://inece.org/conference/7/
In sum, INECE made substantial progress this year, thanks to your
active support and participation, and thanks to the support of our
funders, especially the Netherlands Ministry of Housing, Spatial
Planning and the Environment (VROM) and the United States Environmental
Protection Agency, as well as the United Nations Environment Program,
the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Smithsonian
Institution, the World Bank Institute, Environment Canada, the European
Commission, the Environment Agency (England and Wales), and the
Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic.
But we have many challenges ahead as we implement the next phase
of the INECE Strategic Plan, and I hope that we will be able to
count on your support and participation again in 2005.
Working together, we can continue to contribute to a healthy and
clean environment, sustainable use of natural resources, and the
protection of ecosystem integrity through effective compliance and
enforcement of environmental laws.
On behalf of the EPC Co-Chairs, the EPC, and the Secretariat staff,
we extend our best wishes for the holiday season and an exciting
and productive New Year.
Respectfully,
Durwood Zaelke
Director
INECE Secretariat
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