Historic Progression of the International Frameworks, Exchanges, and Workshops on Environmental Enforcement

Use this timeline to navigate INECE's history.

In a little over a decade the growing partnership through the series of international conferences resulted in: 1) an international mandate in Agenda 21 of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development and consensus on the importance of dedicated programs for environmental compliance and enforcement to the achievement of domestic and international environmental goals, sustainable development and free trade; 2) adoption of common definitions, principles and a framework for international exchange; 3) development of 12 international workshops, 6 technical and 6 capacity building support documents; 4) exchange of experiences of well over 65 country programs and expert views on over 25 special topics in widely disseminated conference proceedings; 5) exponential growth in networking supported by an accessible databank and years of research reflected in over 220 governmental and nongovernmental officials from 100 countries and international organizations invited and confirmed to attend International Conferences; and 6) emergence of new institutional arrangements for ongoing regional and international networking and cooperation

Starting from the first International Enforcement Workshop held in Utrecht, The Netherlands, 1990, and its predecessors in 1985 to the 6th International Conference on Environmental Enforcement and Compliance held in San Jose, Costa Rica in April 2002, international exchanges on environmental enforcement have progressed geometrically reflected in extraordinary growth in the number of participants, countries, and shared experiences. Far more impressive, however, is the extent to which nations have shifted from debates about the merits and need for environmental enforcement to an international commitment to build the capacity for compliance and enforcement as an essential element of environmental management. Equally impressive is the speed with which we have moved across the great divides of culture, language, and tradition -- which in 1985 had yielded wholly different definitions and concepts of what constituted environmental enforcement -- to a common set of definitions and framework for exchange

First steps: The 1985 OECD project and the bilateral U.S. EPA/VROM Memorandum of Understanding
In 1985, two events took place which provided a foundation for the first International Workshops and Conferences. First, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's Group of Economic Experts commissioned three national case studies: United States, Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, on Improving the Efficiency and Effectiveness of Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement of Environmental Policies. The ensuing discussions in Paris and debates over the final report made it clear that few nations examined the extent to which environmental policies and requirements were complied with. Furthermore, even the use of the term enforcement had widely different meanings, some including within their use of the term enforcement any acts which involved implementing the legislative scheme, including issuing permits and/or of offering subsidies. In few instances did these programs focus on efforts to change behavior once requirements were established, whether in legislation, regulations or permits. Nevertheless, the three national case studies received wide circulation, and led the way to further exchanges.

In that same year, the US EPA and the Netherlands' Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and Environment (VROM) entered into a Memorandum of Understanding to promote mutual exchange and transfer of ideas. Environmental enforcement was singled out for exchange. The Dutch government, was particularly eager to address how to get real results from their environmental policies since they realized that they were not getting the benefits they needed from their environmental legislation to secure their long term environmental goals. This MOU led to a series of seminars within the US for several delegations of Dutch officials from all levels of government and several different agencies at the national level. The US had been implementing environmental enforcement programs in earnest for at least a decade. These exchanges were used by the Dutch government to reach consensus on improved structures for environmental enforcement and provided both governments new strategies for improved programs.

1990: The first International Enforcement Workshop
The first International Enforcement Workshop held in Utrecht, The Netherlands, was an attempt by the US and Dutch governments to broaden their bilateral exchanges. Representatives from 13 countries and International organizations attended what was still an extension of these bilateral talks. Although most papers in the Workshop Proceedings were prepared by the Workshop sponsors, they did include developments in Sweden, Germany and Poland as well as papers on behalf of the European Community. At the Workshop, a strategic framework for compliance and enforcement that was developed within the US in 1984, was used to describe the US enforcement program. This framework had been developed to provide a basis for new compliance and enforcement strategies to reinvigorate enforcement after a two year decline and to better articulate a consistent philosophy and approach to inspire improved enforcement among the 50 states and local government entities. The framework had a positive reception at the Workshop and the reaction of those in attendance at the Workshop in general gave added basis for the proposition that key concepts such as deterrence as well as the general framework seemed to have their roots less in particular cultures than in the nature of human behavior.

1991: Request for enforcement training by Poland: Origins of the Principles of Environmental Enforcement as an international training course
At the beginning of 1991, Poland's Ministry of Environmental Protection, Natural Resources and Forestry requested the US Environmental Protection Agency to help improve Poland's environmental programs, and specifically, to offer enforcement training. US EPA's team decided to develop enforcement training with broad international applicability in order to accommodate the changing circumstances within Poland, but most importantly, to empower the Poles with the capacity to design their own programs.

1992: The Year of Environment: A watershed for environmental enforcement
Two recommendations of the participants at the first International Enforcement Workshop were implemented in 1992. The first was a recommendation that we take immediate steps to ensure that enforcement is on the Agenda at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) planned for Brazil in 1992. The second was that we hold a second International Conference in two years with broader sponsorship and participation.

Agenda 21: An international mandate for building compliance and enforcement capacity as an essential element of environmental management
Although enforcement was not specifically a topic at the UNCED, a more significant result emerged in Agenda 21, Chapter 8, Section (e) 8.21, took the goal one step further and established an international mandate to build compliance and enforcement capacity as an essential element of environmental management:

The mandate for environmental compliance and enforcement was introduced as a direct result of the consensus at the International Workshop which gave the participants the confidence to move toward this very important international statement. Language in Agenda 21 empowered UN organizations to more actively support compliance and enforcement institution building activities. Public accountability provided by such governmental programs was undergirded by support for a strong public role in decision making throughout Agenda 21.

Creation of the first regional environmental enforcement network: IMPEL
Another significant outcome of the first international enforcement workshop was the impetus for member states in the European Union to initiate IMPEL: the European Network for Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Law in 1991. The Netherlands Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment embarked, in 1991, on a survey of organizations in each Member State involved in the enforcement of environmental legislation. The survey investigated the different procedures for standard setting, permitting, compliance assessment and enforcement. Findings about inconsistencies which would impose an unequal burden on industry across the European Community were presented to an informal meeting of Environment Ministers who agreed that: "... it would be desirable as a first step to establish a Network of representatives of relevant national authorities and the Commission in the field of enforcement primarily aimed at the exchange of information and experience in the field of compliance and enforcement, and the development of common approaches at a practical level." At a meeting of the EC Environment Council on 12-13 December 1991 the United Kingdom offered to host the first meeting of the Network during its Presidency. This meeting was held in Chester in November of 1992. The Chester Network was renamed the European Union Network for the Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Law- the IMPEL Network at subsequent meetings. Working groups formed to compare technical standards and pollution control technology, procedural and legal aspects of permitting, compliance assessment and inspection and management of the regulatory process. Ad Hoc working groups were established to address common compliance and enforcement issues related to illegal hazardous waste transport and notifications of new chemical substances.

Second International Conference and Principles of Environmental Enforcement acceptance as a framework for exchange
The Second International Conference on Environmental Enforcement in Budapest, Hungary September 22-25, 1992 implemented a second recommendation of participants at the first conference, to hold another conference within two years with broader sponsorship and participation. Representatives from 38 countries and international organizations participated, and sponsorship was broadened to include not only the US EPA, and VROM but also the European Commission of the European Communities, as well as the gracious support of Hungary as host country. The Executive Planning Committee included the United Nations Environment Program as well as the Regional Environmental Center, Poland, Hungary, then the former Czechoslovakia and the World Wildlife Fund, involving NGO’s for the first time. The increased level of exchange is reflected by formal presentations and papers from over 13 countries and three international organizations.

Because of the positive reception at the first International Workshop and the success of the Principles of Environmental Enforcement Training Course within Central and Eastern Europe, the Principles of Environmental Enforcement was offered and accepted as a basis for international exchange. Indeed the Conference participants in Budapest were virtually unanimous in pushing for a Third International Conference focused on opportunities to explore in small group discussions, the applications of those principles, as well as institution building assistance in setting up new or improving existing programs. The outcome of the discussions in Budapest also stressed the importance of an educated citizenry which can understand and support environmental enforcement and the need for actions to protect the environment. It was the first Conference in which participants included the NGO community actively engaged in environmental compliance and enforcement, the citizen enforcers.

UNEP’s publication on Industrial Compliance
In 1992, UNEP published "From Regulations to Industry Compliance: Building Institutional Capabilities". The report was designed to provide government officials and other concerned actors with guidance on building institutional capabilities to implement their environmental laws with an integrated approach so that waste and pollutants are not simply transferred between media, e.g. air to water or water to land, but are actually reduced at the source. Ideas and concepts illustrate the importance of legally binding industrial facilities to established environmental standards and to check that they are meeting them. Examples of countries' experiences were selected to show the incremental steps that can be taken with even minimal personnel and resources when there is sufficient political will. This first publication by UNEP on environmental compliance reflected a growing commitment to the issue and UNEP became a third key anchor of the partnership to promote effective environmental compliance and enforcement programs.

1994: Beyond the Principles of Environmental Enforcement: The Third International Conference
At the urging of participants at the Second Conference, a Third International Conference on Environmental Enforcement was planned and held in Oaxaca, Mexico, April 25-28, 1994. Participants from 68 countries and international organizations were invited by personal invitation. The sponsorship was broadened to include the USEPA, VROM, the United Nations Environment Program I/E, as a full sponsor, the World Wildlife Fund and Mexico’s environment ministry. The Executive Planning Committee was expanded to be truly international in scope for the first time, drawing high level officials from Canada, Costa Rica, Chile, Venezuela, Jamaica, Nigeria, and Indonesia. The published Proceedings included published papers from over 30 countries and international organizations.

The location of the Conference in Mexico highlighted the importance of reaching not only industrialized economies, and those in transition, but also developing economies. The location also highlighted the central importance of environmental compliance and enforcement issues to the free trade movement. The recent passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement among Canada, the United States and Mexico was hotly debated. Concerns about pollution havens, economic pressure to reduce environmental protections, potential erosion of environmental quality in countries where institutions were not sufficiently developed to address environmental issues were central to the debates not only on NAFTA, but also within the European Community. Clear signals were being sent that those countries wanting to engage in free trade, needed to meet some minimum level of competency in establishing environmental standards and ensuring compliance with them. Several other significant developments distinguished the Third Conference.

The partnership produced new "Principles" workshops and technical support documents which cut across both "green" and "brown" issues.

First, under the guidance and review of the Executive Planning Committee, preparations for the Third International Conference on Environmental Enforcement included a shortened delivery of the Principles of Environmental Enforcement Workshops with the introduction of five new case study subject areas for wider applicability. In addition to issues related to poor air quality resulting from coal burning and iron and steel operations, which were the subjects developed for the Polish training, the new case studies addressed:

• Petroleum refining and petrochemicals,
• Mining,
• Residential and industrial waste disposal,
• Deforestation, and
• Tourism.

The new case studies stressed pollution prevention and land use options as well as traditional pollution control. In addition, technical support documents were prepared to accompany the case studies on these topic areas to provide an overview of the kinds of environmental problems, pollution prevention and control options that are available to both address the public outreach issue and to enable officials throughout the world to begin tapping into the expertise available to address these problems. These documents were the first collaborative studies to be produced under the partnership related to these enforcement conferences. Further, it enabled officials from numerous different countries to join in active small group exercises and discussions about common issues and experiences around fictitious case studies applying principles that were common to both green and brown issues where environmental requirements needed to be complied with. The problems behind the fictitious case studies were echoed by real life examples presented at the Conference which were added to the literature on environmental compliance and enforcement with papers delivered from Barbados which mirrored the tourism case study and technical support document, Guyana, which mirrored the mining case study and support document, the experiences of Nigeria, China and the Netherlands in transboundary illegal shipments of hazardous waste, and Dominican Republic in addressing deforestation.

UNEP Institution Building workshops: The Third Conference also launched new UNEP institution building workshops for environmental compliance and enforcement. Requests of UNEP from officials in developing countries and transitional economies of East and Central European to help them apply the concepts and integrated approaches outlined in UNEP’s publication on industrial compliance resulted in the development of UNEP’s Institution Building Workshops for Industrial Compliance. The workshops were developed with The Netherlands in cooperation with US EPA with additional members of an Advisory Committee with members from Mexico, France, Egypt, and Poland to ensure the materials are helpful to developing nations and transition economies. A draft Manual and four case studies with facilitation materials were launched at the Third International Conference on Environmental Enforcement, picking up where the Principles of Environmental Enforcement leave off, exploring in four different modules:

• Organization of permitting, compliance monitoring and enforcement programs
• Human, financial and information resources for the above programs
• Permitting processes for industrial facilities to enhance compliance
• Compliance monitoring and enforcement capability

To reinforce the common basis for all international capacity building, the overview to the manual is a summary of the principles of environmental enforcement. UNEP Advisory Committee members explored the variations in definitions and key concepts used in the Principles text, and within the European Union’s new enforcement network, as well as practical applications within developing countries and transition economies. The UNEP workshop development effort reinforced the desire of all nations to establish a common language and set of principles which can guide the delivery of mutual assistance and exchange. Out of this dialogue modest adjustments were made to the definitions used in the Principles Training, to better clarify the use of the term environmental enforcement in both its narrow context and as a convenient shorthand term for what might more specifically involve both the "carrot and the stick", compliance promotion, monitoring and enforcement response with a clear preference for using the dual terms: " environmental compliance and enforcement" to convey the broader meaning.

In November of 1994, UNEP and the People's Republic of China's National Environmental Protection Agency, organized an Asia regional workshop on industrial compliance using its draft UNEP workshop materials with representatives from 8 nations in attendance.

Special Topic Dialogues are introduced:
Third, the structure of the conference was altered to give more emphasis to small group discussion on special topics culminating in both papers and summaries of these discussions to help articulate areas of common experience and differences as well as state of the art practice.

Spontaneous demand for informal networking:
Finally, spontaneously during informal sessions, participants from the Americas developed the Oaxaca Declaration, committing themselves to work together to establish a network for helping to build programs and improve the enforceability of environmental law. It was this spontaneous action by the conference participants, added to the successes of the IMPEL network and the North American cooperation under the NAFTA framework, that led the Executive Planning Committee to focus on the potential for encouraging regional enforcement networks as an outcome of the Fourth International Conference.

1996: The Fourth International Conference on Environmental Compliance and Enforcement sets the stage for ongoing global and regional networks
The Fourth International Conference sponsors included not only VROM, US EPA, and UNEP I/E serving as the three anchors, but also Thailand's Pollution Control Department, Environment Canada, the European Commission and the Environmental Law Institute, US The Executive Planning Committee includes UNEP's Environmental Law Center, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the WWF, Canada, Mexico, Chile, Poland, Hungary, the United Kingdom, Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, and China. The location of the Conference in Asia added new focus on countries with rapidly industrializing economies to those of industrialized, transitional, developing economies highlighted at prior conferences. Two hundred participants were drawn from 100 countries and international organizations and papers were contributed from over 55 different countries and organizations bringing the aggregate to 67 over the course of the four conferences.

New Capacity building support documents and training materials:
The Executive Planning Committee for the Fourth International Conference specifically commissioned several capacity building support documents which build upon areas identified in the Principles of Environmental Enforcement and UNEP training workshops and other topics of interest at the international conferences to enrich the basis for exchange. The support document on financing and budgeting provides information on more than 60 country programs along with key concepts in budgeting and financing. The comparison of source compliance self-monitoring, reporting and record keeping requirements illustrates how over ten different countries leverage scarce inspection resources and ensure the regulated community has sufficient information to achieve compliance through self-monitoring and reporting while considering technical feasibility, cost to medium and small business, and management of the information. The international comparison of multi-media inspection protocols should help countries continue to explore the relative advantages and disadvantages of single and multimedia approaches. Finally, given the importance of spreading the word about enforcement and gaining the support of an educated and supportive citizenry to make each enforcement action count, new workshop and capacity building support documents are available on communication strategies for enforcement.

Because of the growing importance of illegal shipments of potential hazardous waste, pesticides and ozone depleting substances, a new case study for the Principles of Environmental Enforcement workshops and technical support document on the subject was commissioned by the Executive Planning Committee.

Catalyzing Global and Regional Enforcement Networking
The Fourth Conference provided fertile ground and opportunity for participants to meet within their regions as well as across the globe in the hope that it would encourage commitments to work together on common issues. Regional meetings were organized for a full day of the five day conference. Reports on regional meetings among officials from Africa, the Americas, South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific, Central and Eastern Europe, West Asia and Middle East, and Western Europe reported just this kind of commitment to follow up. The regions explored country programs status and progress, shared problems and challenges, began discussions of institution building needs and opportunities for support and exchange, and developed proposals for regional and international networking and cooperation. Both the Principles of Environmental Enforcement definitions and frameworks and the UNEP workshop materials institutional design issues provided a foundation for discussions. Information on the status of regional networks can be found elsewhere on this Internet site under Associate Organizations.

Creating an ongoing Global Network: The International Network for Environmental Compliance and Enforcement, INECE, is born
The results of the Fourth International Conference quickly dispelled any thoughts about ending the enterprise of the international partnership and claiming victory. The Executive Planning Committee decided that not only was a fifth international conference on the horizon, but that they also wanted to shift directions and reinforce the commitment to support for ongoing networking that had already becoming a reality. The Netherlands' Inspector General for the Environment and US EPA’s Assistant Administrator for Enforcement and Compliance Assurance continued to provide leadership, co-chairing and staffing the Executive Planning Committees for the Conferences, along with the United Nations Environment Program as a third anchor. However, the Executive Planning Committees and conference sponsors expanded, now including not only the European Commission, Environment Canada, the Environmental Law Institute but also the World Bank, and the Environment Agency of England and Wales. The Executive Planning Committee was also expanded following the Fourth Conference, to include several new international NGOs active in environmental compliance and enforcement, and several additional countries. It now includes, in addition to the sponsors listed above, high level officials from: Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Poland, Hungary, Ukraine, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and the People’s Republic of China as well as the Alliance for Environmental Law Worldwide.

1997: Further Developments for INECE
At its first meeting of the expanded Executive Planning Committee in The Hague, The Netherlands in January of 1997, the partnership adopted the name INECE, to signal the commitment to an ongoing network and set in place an ambitious two year work program.

An Associate status was created to better link the global network to related activities of regional enforcement networks and non governmental organizations. Key among the Associates to INECE is INTERPOL, which has embarked on a concerted program to combat environmental crime. Linking traditional law enforcement institutions with the work of environmental institutions is an increasingly important undertaking.

INECE Work Program
Beyond plans for a Fifth International Conference, were projects to enhance networking and communications. A twice yearly Newsletter, enhanced Internet homepage, improved databank and diskettes to make it easy for regional enforcement networks to maintain and communicate with those participating in networking activities. Several new capacity building documents were commissioned including a Compendium of Inspector Training Courses and Comparison of Course Curricula and Program Designs, and a report on use of compliance action plans and schedules. Commitments were made to update the Principles of Environmental Enforcement Text with examples from the experiences shared during five conferences.

One of the more ambitious undertakings is the development of a simple instrument to summarize and benchmark country progress and assess capacity building needs which could be aggregated for a country, region and globally. The purpose is primarily to help focus and garner resources for these purposes and to help direct INECE programs and those participating in INECE activities.

1998: Fifth International Conference on Environmental Compliance and Enforcement
The Fifth International Conference was held in Monterey, California, November 16-20, 1998. One of the key themes was making compliance and enforcement happen. The conference program included over thirty special topics. To ensure small group discussions the target for the Fifth Conference was held to no more than 250 persons with specific allocations for 153 individual countries and international organizations. Historically, there had been exponential growth in the numbers and representation of governmental and non-governmental officials participating in the Conferences. This growth was directly related to the progress and interest in environmental enforcement and contacts and relationships established since all participants are personally invited based upon research into their ability to influence the design or enhancement of environmental compliance and enforcement programs. Since 1990, and every two years since, the number of countries and international organizations participating in the International Conferences, from Utrecht to Budapest, and from Oaxaca to Chiang Mai doubled, a pattern which will obviously change given the success of the conferences in reaching more and more countries and levels of government.

The Fifth Conference program and detailed outlines for papers topics solicited for published proceedings can be found at this Internet site under Networking/International Conferences.

Setting a course for the future
INECE is an evolving partnership. Many individuals and institutions will help to shape its future. Most importantly is the future of environmental compliance and enforcement. The Fifth Conference will commence with a session on where environmental compliance and enforcement has been, where it is going, and the role of INECE. The Executive Planning Committee will be formulating this statement over the next several months benefiting from the papers and ideas of network participants and their own varied experiences. When completed, that vision will be a key addition to this site. One thing is clear from the history of environmental compliance and enforcement is that it requires a mix of disciplines and cooperation among numerous institutions to work, and must constantly respond to change, change in laws and requirements, change in perception, change in the economics of compliance, change in societal norms. Furthermore, enforcement is by its nature a function that has local roots. Because of this, INECE is striving for a global network which starts first at local levels, networking among key institutions of government, the police, environment agencies, sectoral agencies; second among local groups and with related regional and national groups within nations; third, between governments and NGOs; fourth internationally in bilateral cooperation; fifth regionally among nations among all relevant groups; and finally, sixth, on a global scale among the various groups as needs arise and catalyzing ideas and approaches and cooperation around the globe. Please also see the commentary from the INECE Secretariat, Durwood Zaelke, on the growing mandate of INECE to strengthen environmental compliance and enforcement efforts, particularly in light of the upcoming WSSD (Rio +10) meeting.