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The 2008 Regional Forum of the Asian Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Network (AECEN) opened on November 24 at the Grand Hyatt Bali, Nusa Dua, Indonesia. The main topics of the forum were effective decentralisation, environmental compliance and enforcement, and the measuring of institutional capacity for effective enforcement. Participants included over 100 senior environmental officials, policy makers, judges, lawyers and other environmental experts from across Asia, as well as representatives of international organisations and donors.
 The Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe (REC) attended the forum in its capacity as secretariat of the Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Network for Accession (ECENA). Dr Radoje Lausevic, deputy executive director of the REC, presented experiences from Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries with respect to the decentralisation of environmental permitting and inspection, while Mr. Mihail Dimovski, senior expert for environmental law, enforcement and compliance, shared the experience gained by ECENA in measuring institutional capacity for effective enforcement. The forum was thus an opportunity for the REC to continue the transfer of experience and lessons learnt in relation to better implementation and the enforcement of environmental legislation from CEE to Asia.
The cooperation framework between ECENA and AECEN was established at the AECEN forum in 2005. Participants at the 2008 forum were once again able to recognise the relevance of the REC’s experience for AECEN members — environmental enforcement agencies from China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Nepal, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam. AECEN members, in particular developing countries, expressed great interest in developing possible joint programmes with ECENA member countries. Such activities may involve sharing best practices from CEE stakeholders on environmental compliance and enforcement by means of peer review programmes; conducting focused workshops and trainings; sharing innovative approaches from the CEE region on fighting environmental crime; and establishing “twinning” initiatives between ECENA and AECEN member countries.
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