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WORKSHOP ON SATELLITE MONITORING FOR LEGAL COMPLIANCE
Can The Hague deliver justice and peace for
international environmental conflicts?
Reasons behind failing compliance with and
enforcement of international environmental law are manifold; from appropriate functioning
institutions to their access by victims of environmental crimes, and from
missing legal and financial capacity to missing political will on a local and
national scale. Many
organisations that support
measures to tackle these problems, investigate further and fight against
environmental crimes are hosted at The Hague, in The Netherlands.
The organisers are very proud to offer the
participants the up-to-date development on remote sensing for legal compliance
from Dr. Ray Purdy, who just returned from Australia for his current research
project on this topic carried out for the University College London.
Following his presentation will be a panel with presentations and
discussion on the HELF - pilot project on illegal hazardous waste shipments together
with the Secretariat of the Basel Convention, which sets the international
legal framework, the European Network of Implementation and Enforcement of
Environmental Law (IMPEL) of the European Commission and latest findings of the
European Environmental Agency, represented by Dr. Christian Fischer,
international expert on hazardous waste management.
 NEW TRADE MEASURES PRESENT CHALLENGES FOR TIMBER MARKETS IN THE UNECE REGION
IES participates in debate on timber markets
 “Regulations affecting the trade of timber products are evolving
quickly, and this evolution should be closely monitored because of the
impacts on the entire forest sector.” So concluded the workshop on
“Emerging Trade Measures in Timber Markets”, organised by the United
Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) jointly with the
Economic Research and Statistics Division of the World Trade
Organization (WTO), on 23 March 2010 in Geneva.
IES Pathfinder Project Coordinator Géraud de Ville attended the workshop
with more than 100 stakeholders from government, industry, trade
associations, intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations and
academia. There is currently considerable concern and debate about the
entire range of trade and trade-related measures impacting on the timber
markets.
World trade of wood and paper products, including value-added products,
has doubled over the last 10 years. This has occurred notwithstanding
various policies and measures affecting the timber trade. China is the
motor of the global timber trade, having become the major importer of
roundwood and the major exporter of value-added wood products such as
wooden furniture. China’s wood products exports expanded 5-fold from
2000 to 2008.
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