Governmental Coordination to Enforce Environmental Laws: The Experiences of an Australian Federal Environmental Regulator

Abstract:     
The fact that environmental crimes, and those entities that perpetrate them, do not respect borders has been well-documented. Given that these borders are local, provincial and national, it is no surprise that recent decades have seen a proliferation of Environmental Enforcement Networks (‘networks’).

Additionally; there are expectations and requirements on governments to operate in a more connected, seamless and joined-up way. In fact, operating in such a way is referred to in the public administration lexicon as ‘the whole of government approach’. The combination of these factors has resulted in government regulators becomingly increasingly reliant upon the greater ‘regulatory reach’ and the collective capacity provided by networks.

This paper details the use made by the Australian Government’s Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (DEWHA) of networks as a part of governmental coordination in its overall environmental enforcement effort. It focuses also on the systems and coordination mechanisms which are in place presently and that will need to be enhanced or developed to combat environmental crime more effectively into the future.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 30

Keywords: capacity building, coordination, environmental enfocement networks, law enforcement liaison, networking

JEL Classification: K20, K32, K40

working papers series