EXPLORING STRATEGIES FOR ESTABLISHING COMPLIANCE ASSISTANCE CENTERS
Observational Program for the Thai and Philippine Delegation
Sharing International Experience and Best Practices
Taiwan
July 23-27, 2007
Background: Rapid industrialization and urbanization in Asia have led to significant
environmental challenges, including depletion of forests, continued
deterioration of urban water and air quality, and an increasing production of
hazardous waste. As a result, in addition to exercising enforcement
authorities, agencies in the region have been exploring strategies to assist
regulated communities to comply with environmental legal requirements.
In particular, the Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) of the
Philippines, an agency vested with the powers, functions and responsibilities
to manage and control the Laguna de Bay and its watershed, is developing
pilot compliance assistance centers for swine farms and slaughterhouses
within Laguna de Bay Region. Based on a series of stakeholder consultation
meetings and exchange with the United States Environmental Protection
Agency (U.S. EPA) and Council of Agriculture and the Swine Association of
Republic of China (Taiwan) in May 2007, the LLDA plans to launch the
compliance assistance centers in September 2007.
Likewise, the Pollution Control Department (PCD) of Thailand is developing
an action plan to establish a pilot compliance assistance center for swine
facilities located in the Tha Chin River Basin. Based on the recent
consultation with stakeholders and exchange with experts from U.S. EPA and
Council of Agriculture and the Swine Association of Taiwan at the Tha Chin
and Bang Pakong River Basins, PCD is working to prepare a Compliance
Assistance Center website, outreach materials, compliance assistance
activities to support swine farmers, and a training course on environmental
management.
Objectives:
To strengthen the understanding of the Thai and Philippine delegates on
strategies for establishing and implementing compliance assistance programs
and activities, including the role of regulatory agencies (Council of
Agriculture and Environmental Protection Administration), Swine
Association, universities, local governments, and others in promoting
compliance assistance, and successes and challenges in providing compliance
assistance activities to regulated swine farms and slaughterhouses in Taiwan.
Focus Areas:
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Overview of pollution control efforts for swine and slaughterhouse
sectors;
Strategies, approaches and criteria for establishing compliance assistance
programs and activities for both sectors;
Types of compliance assistance activities, such as technical guidance,
training workshops, subsidies and loans, etc.;
Role of regulatory agency - Environmental Protection Agency and
Council of Agriculture in promoting compliance;
Role of local governments, universities, environmental groups, and others
in supporting compliance assistance activities;
Role of Swine Associations in working with their members and
regulatory agencies to promote compliance;
Coordination mechanisms among the different agencies and partners in
promoting compliance;
Measures of success of the different compliance assistance initiatives and
the program as a whole;
Overall successes and challenges, and public perception of the agencies
and their compliance assistance program;
Budget for compliance assistance activities implementation, including
staffing information;
Means of sustaining the different compliance assistance programs and
activities;
Outreach, information dissemination strategies and other ways of
ensuring stakeholder involvement;
Capacity building programs for swine farmers; and
Best practices and innovative technologies to promote environmental
management of swine and slaughterhouses facilities.
Participants: 8 delegates from Thailand and Philippines
Organizers:
Asian Environmental Compliance and Assistance Network (AECEN), a
regional network supported by the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID) and the Council of Agriculture of Taiwan