Partnering for Enforcement with Green Customs

The Green Customs Initiative is an example of developing synergybetween the Montreal Protocol and other multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) about a specific need expressed by developing countries and countries with economies in transition: building the capacity of customs officers in monitoring the trade of commodities as controlled under MEAs.

This Initiative aims at strengthening compliance and enforcement of multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs). Illegal trade in 'environmentally-sensitive' commodities such as ozone depleting substances (ODS), toxic chemicals, hazardous wastes and endangered species is an international problem with serious consequences. Several MEA Secretariats (of the Basel, Stockholm, and Rotterdam Conventions, CITES, the Montreal Protocol), UNEP Divisions and Regional Offices, Interpol and the World Customs Organization (WCO) are cooperating on this cross-cutting initiative. The role of this project is to operationalize this concept through integrated capacity building for customs officers within the MEA enforcement chain. It is coordinated by UNEP's Division of Technology, Industry and Economics through its OzonAction programme.

The Governments of Norway, Finland and the Czech Republic have financially supported this Initiative. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is also contributing to the organisation of the workshops, as well as UNEP's Division of Environmental Conventions.

Current and planned activities

Six sub-regional or regional Green Customs workshops have already held:

• Damascus, Syria (3-4 May 2005), for West Asia
• Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago (6-9 September 2005), for the Caribbean
• Tbilisi, Georgia (25-28 October 2005), for the Caucasus
• Thimphu, Bhutan (29 October-1 Nov. 2005), for South and Southeast Asia
• Arusha, Tanzania (14-18 November 2005), for East Africa
• Tashkent, Uzbekistan (14-17 February 2006), for Central Asia

A Training Guide for Green Customs Initiativehas been draftedwith contribution of all Partners, and will be completed by the end of 2006 and subsequently translated. The goal is to ensure that the Green Customs module is integrated within the training curricula of national customs authorities and thus on the road to sustainability.

Green Customs thus transmits the messages of the MEAs to a wider compliance and enforcement community.