International Compliance and Enforcement Networks: The Critical Role of Collaboration in Environmental Protection

Over the past four decades, considerable efforts have been made to improve management of human relationships with the environment (UNEP, 2007). Countries have created environmental agencies, negotiated multilateral agreements, and undertaken new initiatives at the local, national, and international levels to protect human health, limit greenhouse gas emissions, conserve biodiversity and wildlife, and manage natural resources and sustainable development. These efforts have increasingly shown a collaborative nature and involved leaders in governments, parliaments, and the judiciary, in international organisations, businesses, and civil society, and in other sectors. Environmental officials have often been at the forefront of efforts to promote the rule of law and good governance through work to advance sustainable development objectives. These efforts and achievements have depended on significant collaboration at the individual, group, and agency/organisational levels.