The International Network for Environmental Compliance and Enforcement (INECE) is a global network of environmental compliance and enforcement practitioners dedicated to raising awareness of compliance and enforcement across the regulatory cycle; developing networks for enforcement cooperation; and strengthening capacity to implement and enforce environmental requirements. [1]
Founded in 1989 by The Netherlands Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment and by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA), INECE links the environmental compliance and enforcement efforts of more than 4,000 practitioners - inspectors, prosecutors, regulators, parliamentarians, judges, international organizations, and non-governmental organizations - from 120 countries. [2]
INECE's organizational structure consists of its Executive Planning Committee, its implementing Secretariat, and its participants.
The Executive Planning Committee, as the governing body of INECE, defines INECE's cooperative efforts and makes decisions to realize the INECE mission. It is co-chaired by representatives of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), the Netherlands Ministry of Environment, Housing and Urban Development, and the Brazil Supreme Court. The INECE Secretariat provides technical, administrative, and communications support for Executive Planning Committee functions and helps to implement the INECE work program. Durwood Zaelke, President of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, is the current Director of the INECE Secretariat.
INECE participants include inspectors, prosecutors, regulators, parliamentarians, judges, other governmental officials, and members of international and non-governmental organizations. INECE is an informal network, and any environmental compliance and enforcement practitioners may join the network by registering through the INECE Web site. [3] INECE participants support the mission and objectives of the network, and may carry out these activities on an individual, organizational, bilateral, and/or multilateral basis as appropriate. [4]
INECE conferences bring together enforcement officials from both developed and developing countries all over the world to share experiences and make plans to take environmental compliance and enforcement efforts to the next level. INECE has hosted eight international conferences since 1990:
INECE expert working groups provide opportunities for participants to collaborate to respond to environmental compliance and enforcement challenges and to share knowledge gained with the broader network through workshops, conferences, publications, and email discussion groups. [1] Major expert working groups and topical networks include:
INECE training resources developed to help individuals responsible for environmental protection in different countries, regions, and localities design and implement compliance strategies and enforcement programs include:
Environmental laws are laws that protect the environment. Environmental law is the collection of laws, regulations, agreements and common law that governs how humans interact with their environment. This includes environmental regulations; laws governing management of natural resources, such as forests, minerals, or fisheries; and related topics such as environmental impact assessments. Environmental law is seen as the body of laws concerned with the protection of living things from the harm that human activity may immediately or eventually cause to them or their species, either directly or to the media and the habits on which they depend.
The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe is one of the five regional commissions under the jurisdiction of the United Nations Economic and Social Council. It was established in order to promote economic cooperation and integration among its member states.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status of the natural world and the measures needed to safeguard it. It is involved in data gathering and analysis, research, field projects, advocacy, and education. IUCN's mission is to "influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve nature and to ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable".
The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of Ramsar sites (wetlands). It is also known as the Convention on Wetlands. It is named after the city of Ramsar in Iran, where the convention was signed in 1971.
The International Chamber of Commerce is the largest, most representative business organization in the world. ICC represents over 45 million businesses in over 170 countries who have interests spanning every sector of private enterprise.
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The Commission for Environmental Cooperation is an intergovernmental organization established by Canada, Mexico, and the United States to implement the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC), the environmental side accord to the North American Free Trade Agreement. The CEC's mission is to facilitate cooperation and public participation to foster conservation, protection and enhancement of the North American environment for the benefit of present and future generations, in the context of increasing economic, trade and social connections among Canada, Mexico and the United States.
Village Earth: The Consortium for Sustainable Village-Based Development (CSVBD) DBA: Village Earth is a publicly supported 501(c)(3) non-profit, non-governmental organization (NGO) based in Fort Collins, Colorado, US. The organization works for the empowerment of rural and indigenous communities around the world with active projects with the Oglala Lakota on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, the Shipibo-Konibo of the Amazon region of Peru, India, Cambodia, and Guatemala. Village Earth is associated with the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) at Colorado State University. Village Earth is also the publisher for The Appropriate Technology Library and The Appropriate Technology Sourcebook, a low-cost rural-development resource initiated by Volunteers in Asia in 1975 but transferred to Village Earth in 1995.
Women Engage for a Common Future (WECF), formerly known as Women in Europe for a Common Future, is a non-governmental organization created in 1994 following the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. The aim of the organization is to "achieve an equitable and sustainable healthy environment for all". WECF is a network of more than 150 women's and environmental organizations in 50 countries worldwide. WECF also works on national, European, UN and international political levels with the aim to increase women's influence in political decision-making processes.
The Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) is the law enforcement arm of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It is made up of attorneys, special agents, scientists and other employees.
Ernest Walter Thomas Cooper was the first Wildlife Inspector in Canada. He was formerly the Director for the conservation organization WWF-Canada and the Canadian National Representative of TRAFFIC the global wildlife trade monitoring network. He left WWF and TRAFFIC in 2014, and formed an environmental consulting business, specialising in wildlife trade issues. In 2009, an article in Canadian Geographic referred to Cooper as "Canada’s top wildlife-trafficking investigator."
The European Centre for Nature Conservation (ECNC) was a Dutch non-profit foundation which was active in the field of European nature and biodiversity policy between 1993 and 2017. It was set up as a network of university departments, expert centres and government agencies and operated as a European biodiversity expertise centre. The organization promoted sustainable management of natural resources and biodiversity, and aimed to stimulate interaction between science, society and policy.
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CLASP is an international nonprofit organization which provides technical and policy support to governments worldwide and works to implement energy efficiency standards and labels (S&L) for appliances, lighting, and equipment. It specializes in publishing studies and analyses with relevance to S&L practitioners.
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