Mandate to Strenghten Environmental Enforcement

Summary
As the international community prepares to meet in Johannesburg for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, the need to strengthen environmental enforcement and compliance is emerging as an important theme. This follows the growing recognition that decades of environmental lawmaking have not sufficiently arrested environmental degradation, and that enforcement and compliance must become a priority in the coming decades. Building the capacity to carry out the needed enforcement and compliance will require global cooperation. One key actor will be the International Network for Environmental Compliance and Enforcement (INECE), a global network that has done yeomen's work in this field since its founding in 1990 by the Dutch and US environmental agencies, in partnership with UNEP, the World Bank, and the European Commission.

The Growing Mandate
Despite a growing body of environmental law at the national and international level developed in the thirty years since the Stockholm conference on the human environment-more than 300 international and regional agreements since 1972-various measures of environmental quality show continuing degradation across a broad spectrum, with serious consequences for ecosystems and public health. As a telling example, one million people a month die from lack of clean water and sanitation, and millions more die every year from various forms of industrial pollution.

Evidence points to the failure to invest in enforcement and compliance as a key reason for the continuing degradation of environmental quality. This was recognized at the Rio Earth Summit in Agenda 21, Chapter 8, which specifically directs that States develop their compliance and enforcement capacity; in UNEP's final Montevideo III Programme, approved in 2001; in UNEP's Guidelines for Compliance and Enforcement, approved February 15, 2002 in Cartegena; and in the European Commission's current efforts with the thirteen accession countries.

It is recognized today as well in the run up to the World Summit on Sustainable Development, where a consensus is emerging that not enough has been done since Rio to improve environmental enforcement and compliance. Lack of funding and lack of political will are often offered as explanations, based in part on the fear that improving enforcement and compliance will increase the cost to industry, harm their competitiveness at home and abroad, and deter foreign investment.

The enforcement gap is illustrated by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES): of the 154 parties, 76 are believed generally not to meet one or more of the requirements for implementing CITES. Without stronger enforcement and compliance, CITES will not succeed in protecting endangered species. This situation is repeated in many other agreements, and is unacceptable if we hope to leave a positive environmental legacy for future generations.

At the same time that the enforcement gap is being recognized, and the mandate for addressing it is growing, evidence is accumulating that investing in enforcement and compliance not only improves environmental quality and public health, it also improves the competitiveness of nations and firms. Improving enforcement and compliance also enhances respect for the rule of law and strengthens the foundation for better environmental governance.

The International Network for Environmental Compliance and Enforcement
The growing emphasis on enforcement and compliance is expected to increase the demand for the services of the International Network for Environmental Compliance and Enforcement (INECE), a network of enforcement practitioners dedicated to raising the awareness of the issue; assisting with capacity building; and facilitating enforcement cooperation though national, regional, and global networks-all leading to more and better actual enforcement and compliance. INECE participants come from 130 countries, principally from governments, but also from NGOs and academia. Key INECE partners include UNEP, World Bank, European Commission, and OECD.