USAID RDM/A Regional Environment Office Weekly Report Week Ending May 2, 2008

USAID Partners with WHO and Singapore to Train Water Utilities in Safeguarding Water Quality. The USAID ECO-Asia program supported the World Health Organization (WHO) and Singapore Public Utilities Board (PUB) in conducting a water safety plan (WSP) training of trainers workshop on 22-25 April at the PUB WaterHub in Singapore. The training focused on WSP frameworks developed by WHO and practical examples on safe water management from PUB. About 35 participants from Brunei, China, Macau, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand attended the four-day training and gained first-hand knowledge of PUB’s approach to integrated water quality management. PUB and ECO-Asia also arranged an additional one-day training on PUB’s customer outreach and feedback systems for the Chinese participants. ECO-Asia and PUB will explore opportunities for ‘twinning’ arrangements to assist Chinese utilities in developing a customer feedback system for water quality monitoring, an important step in operationalizing a WSP

Asian Cities Share Experience on Sanitation Solutions. The USAID ECO-Asia program and the World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) organized a regional workshop for Asian cities on sanitation in Bangkok, Thailand from 21-24 April. The workshop brought together over 50 public officials from various cities and central government agencies from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines to share experience on sanitation challenges and solutions. Participants identified lack of awareness of sanitation and hygiene as the most important challenge. The workshop also allowed cities to present their best practices.

West Bengal to Establish India’s First Environmental Compliance Assistance Center. The State of West Bengal organized a stakeholder consultation meeting in Kolkata, India on April 29 to establish a new center that will promote improved compliance with environmental regulations. Hosted by the West Bengal Pollution Control Board (WBPCB) and the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC), the meeting produced an action plan establishing an environmental compliance assistance center that will provide industry with information on policies, legal requirements, clean technologies and finance. The workshop was organized with support from the USAID-funded Asian Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Network (AECEN) and the World Bank. Representatives from Thailand and Philippines, which are AECEN member agencies, shared best practices on establishing and operating compliance assistance centers. The Printers’ National Environmental Assistance Center of the United States also shared lessons learned and experiences on the establishment of its center. The World Bank discussed longer-term support to the center as a pioneering effort in India to promote industrial environmental compliance assistance.

AECEN Executive Committee Welcomes New Asian Members. The Executive Committee of the USAID-funded Asian Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Network (AECEN) met on April 25, 2008 in Bangkok and welcomed new members fromIndonesia, India, Japan, and Singapore. At the meeting, the Committee developed plans for the AECEN Award for Excellence for Women, a program for sharing best practices by “twinning” member agencies, and the AECEN Regional Forum which will be held in Bali, Indonesia on November 24-26, 2008.

Environmental Compliance Assistance Centers Officially Launched in the Philippines. On April 29, 2008, the Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) formally launched environmental compliance assistance centers in the Laguna de Bay region. The establishment of the centers is a milestone for ensuring compliance with environmental regulations geared to reducing pollution loading into the Laguna de Bay, the largest freshwater lakes in the country. The virtual centers will provide information on applicable pollution control policies and regulations, technology options, potential funding sources, and best practices for the swine and meat processing industries. LLDA will use portions of the fines and penalties collected through the environmental user fee system to cover operational costs and to help sustain the centers in the years ahead. The USAID-funded Asian Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Network (AECEN) supports the LLDA initiative as part of its regional effort to promote compliance.

USAID Supports Cross-Sector Dialogue on Sustainable Forest Management, Investment, and Trade in Southeast Asia. During “Asia-Pacific Forestry Week”, which was sponsored by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the Asia-Pacific Forestry Commission, USAID’s Responsible Asia Forestry and Trade (RAFT) Program hosted a workshop on April 23 in Hanoi, Vietnam to promote the wider adoption of legal and sustainable forest management and trade in Asia. Discussions were instrumental in building bridges across sectors on timber certification, its effects on market prices, investment screening, and tax incentives for businesses to practice sustainable forestry. The dialogue helps build awareness and trust across government, industry, and civil society, and strengthens RAFT’s capacity to pursue responsible forest management and trade in the region. Mr. Amir Sunarko, CEO of Sumalindo Lestari Jaya, a market-listed forest management, timber processing, and exporting business in Indonesia, presented the company’s experiences in achieving timber certification through USAID support. Among the 65 active participants were DLH, a major Danish timber company; the UK-based Timber Trade Association; government representatives from the EU, UK, Indonesia, andMalaysia; and several non-profit organizations working on sustainable forestry.

U.S. Trains ASEAN-WEN Scientists to Track Wildlife Criminals. Four forensic experts representing the ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network (ASEAN-WEN) have just completed a two-week training course today on wildlife crime forensics at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Forensics Laboratory in Ashland, Oregon. The exchange was funded by USAID through the ASEAN-WEN Support Program. The scientists from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand were able to observe and learn about the techniques used by their U.S. counterparts in what is regarded as the most advanced wildlife forensics facility in the world. They were trained on various topics, including crime scene investigation; DNA extraction and analysis; ivory, fur, and leather identification; blood and bile analysis; and cause of death determination. The exchange also aims to increase information sharing between ASEAN-WEN and the United States in order to stop East-West wildlife crime.

ASEAN-WEN Introduced to United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Network. On April 29 in Siem Riep, Cambodia, the ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network (ASEAN-WEN) Program Coordination Unit and the USAID-sponsored ASEAN-WEN Support Program introduced the network and its anti-wildlife crime initiatives to senior law enforcement officers from six Asian countries that run Border Liaison Offices (BLOs) of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The BLOs are currently focused on combating drug trafficking among the six BLO MOU countries, which are China, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Myanmar. UNODC invited ASEAN-WEN's Klairoong Poonpon and Chief of Party Steven Galster to introduce the network’s aims and methods, and to discuss how ASEAN-WEN and UNODC might collaborate. As a next step, the Regional BLO Coordination Office in Bangkok will design a proposal for formal collaboration starting next year, although informal collaboration has already begun.