ISS Regional Workshop BY INVITATION ONLY: Environmental Crimes for Environmental Law Enforcement Officers in Eastern Africa

Date: 2010-08-02 to 2010-08-05

Venue: Kampala, Uganda

The ECP Regional Training on Environmental Crimes for Law Enforcement Officers in Eastern Africa region is being held in Republic of Uganda. The ECP ISS in partnership with the EAPCCO and the Uganda Police organized the Meeting. The meeting is being attended by police officers from Burundi, Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda Tanzania, Seychelles, Sudan and Uganda. Members of the law enforcement fraternity from the different environmental management and protection agencies within the region as well as the ECP staff from the ISS are also attending the Training. The Training has been organized to run for four days. The Trainers are drawn from the regional law enforcement agencies, the local universities and INTERPOL Headquarters.

The Inspector General of Uganda Police Force, Major General Kale Kayihura, performed the official opening of the Training. Dr. Wilson Kipkore, Programme Head, ESP, represented the ISS Director, Nairobi Office and made some opening remarks on behalf of the ECP Project. Mr. Goodluck Mongi, represented the Interpol Regional Bureau, EAPCCO.

In his opening remarks, Dr. Kipkore noted that the Training Exercise will pioneer an important milestone in conceptualizing the human security debate in the Eastern Africa region, particularly so within the environmental security pillar of development. He expressed his hope that the said Training will be the beginning of a process whereby contemporary environmental challenges and emerging ones will be analyzed and addressed appropriately. Mr. Mongi, speaking on behalf of the Interpol Regional Bureau Head, stressed that environmental crime is transboundary in nature and the Training will is key in enhancing collaborative cross border environmental law enforcement as well as developing networks for cooperation to effectively curb environmental crime in the region.

The Chief Guest, the Honorable Inspector General of the Police Force, Republic of Uganda, Major General Kale Kayihura, emphasized that environmental law enforcers should not only focus on implementation of the law, but also on the content of policies and laws that govern our environment and identify areas that need to be improved based on best practices. He identified corruption as one of the major challenges in the enforcement of environmental laws in the region.