United Nations Environment Programme
Freeland Foundation
Asia Environmental Enforcement Award
Background
Crime and violations of environmental law, including in the form of illegal exploitation of natural resources, illegal trade in wildlife, illicit trade in hazardous waste and other waste, smuggling of ozone depleting substances (ODS), unregulated and unreported fishing, and illegal logging and trade in timber, are fast growing with vast financial gains and facilitated by a low risk of detection and low conviction rates. Such violations and crimes often fail to prompt the required response from governments and law enforcement agencies, as they are often perceived as ‘soft crimes’ or ‘victimless crimes’, yet they undermine the achievement of all dimensions of sustainable development and environmental sustainability.
Asia is one of the main destinations for illegal transboundary movements of chemicals and waste, as well as the location of several illegal wildlife trade hotspots. For example, China imports more than 50 million tonnes legal waste annually, and China Customs seized almost one million tonnes illegal hazardous waste in 2013 as a result of its border control of illegal waste trade under a nation-wide Green Fence operation. After China Customs intensified its control of import of waste, it has been observed that many transboundary shipments of wastes have been designated to other Asian countries. For instance, European countries seized a number of waste containers on route to India. The Philippines has seized waste containers from Canada, Japan, Republic of Korea and other countries. Seizures on ozone depleting substances have also been reported repeatedly by countries in the Asia region. Illegal wildlife trade involves endangered plant and animal species with some of the more expensive species and/or their parts commonly traded and involving countries in Asia, including tigers, elephant ivory, rhino horns, bears, pangolins, and exotic birds and reptiles.
To encourage countries, organizations and individuals in Asia to boldly and fearlessly combat environmental crime, and to allocate more resources to the cause, the Asia Environmental Enforcement Award (AEEA) seeks to recognize the leaders and champions who have demonstrated outstanding law enforcement action and/or achievements in the prevention and control of illegal trade in wildlife, ODS and other chemicals and waste.
Objectives
The award aims to provide the incentive and recognition to individual enforcement officers, teams or organizations of countries across Asia and of relevant regional organizations, to enhance motivation amongst individuals and teams/organizations, and to ensure that excellence in environmental enforcement is recognized and rewarded.
Eligibility
Any enforcement agency or/and individual, including customs, police, environmental police agencies and enforcement personnel from these agencies in Asia, which play a key role in monitoring and controlling illegal trade in wildlife, waste, and chemicals including ODS, and in ensuring the effective enforcement of national environmental laws to fulfill their commitments under multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs).
Those individuals, teams/organizations who achieve outstanding performance as part of their participation in joint environmental enforcement operations will also be given consideration.
Award Categories
An Asia Environmental Enforcement Award will be presented to each of the following categories:
Category Individual Organization/Team
Wildlife 2 2
Chemicals 2 2
The award for Organization/Team can be at the unit level or above (including department, division, section, branch, office and unit), especially those that have played an exemplary role in combating environmental crime in Asia.
Nomination
Nominations will be by invitation only. Each country/organization receiving the invitation is invited to nominate one individual or one team/organization for consideration.
For the Chemical and Waste category, the invitation will be sent to the 25 participating countries and the partner organizations of the Regional Enforcement Network (REN) for Chemicals and Waste Project, as well as the National Ozone Units in Asian countries.
The nomination should be sent to REN/OzonAction Compliance Assistance. Programme (CAP) (for the ODS, Chemicals and Waste category), or to Freeland (for the Wildlife category), by e-mail or fax:
REN/OzonAction CAP:
Email: ning@un.org; shaofeng.hu@unep.org, Fax: +66-2 280 3829
Freeland:
Email: betty@freeland.org; Fax: +662 254 8324
The nomination form can also be downloaded from the websites of REN and Freeland: UNEP ROAP website: http://web.unep.org/regions/roap
REN website: http://www.projectren.org/ren_awards.php
Freeland website: www.freeland.org
Criteria
The following criteria will be used in selecting award recipients:
a) Outstanding major investigation, raid, seizure, arrest, and prosecution and/or especially if this has led to a conviction;
b) A record of high level professional achievement and commitment in combating
environmental crime leading to measurable results; and
c) Success in bringing public recognition to the importance of compliance and enforcement.
The following factors will also be considered during the selection process of organizations and teams:
a) Information and intelligence sharing – actively involving in information/intelligence sharing in a timely manner with other countries, regionally and international enforcement organizations;
b) Capacity Building – actively organizing activities to enhance the capability and skills of law enforcement officers and/or to make efforts to strengthen the institution for combating environmental crime;
c) Active cooperation with other national enforcement agencies; and
d) Active participation in the regional and global enforcement efforts.
Time Period
The achievements, activities, or successful stories, such as seizures, operations, capacity building/ awareness raising activities should have taken place within January 2015- June 2016.
Selection
A first-stage screening process will be conducted in-house by UNEP and Freeland. UNEP and Freeland will then appoint an award selection panel to review nominations and recommend the winners based on the evaluation criteria. The two individual candidates and three organizations/teams with the highest rankings will be the award-winners in their respective categories.
Award Ceremony
An award ceremony will be held at an important regional conference in late 2016, the exact date to be announced in due course. The laureates will be invited to accept their award (trophy and certificate) at this ceremony, which publicizes and encourages the worldwide replication of their achievements.
Deadline for Application
The nomination should be sent not later than 6.00 pm (Bangkok time), 29 July 2016. Any nomination received after that time will be automatically declined.