Mechanism to Exchange Information, Experience, and Expertise

[Chris Paterson]

As agreed during the Fourth Meeting of the Regional Task Force on Legal Matters (RTF-L) in Shantou, China, this e-forum discussion topic on the establishment of a mechanism to exchange information, experience, and expertise on environmental law in the region has been created for members of the RTF-L. Each member of the RTF-L has been registered as a user of this forum and will receive and e-mail notification when messages are posted in here.

[Mohd Nizam Basiron]

Dear Friends,

Yes, as agreed in Shantou, this forum is on the establishment of a mechanism to exchange information, experience and expertise on environmental law in the region. Most of the information is already contained in the draft review of national laws which we prepared but the information needs to be disseminated further for it to be of benefit to the project members and others. The main focus of this forum for now should be on the various options available in general and we will have more detailed discussion on the subject once we find an option agreed by most. So don't be shy, lets start the ball rolling!

Regards and as always, nice meeting you all again in Shantou.

Nizam.

[John Pernetta]

Nizam and colleagues,

I think we need to consider the substance as much as the process. So whilst I must say thanks to Nizam for starting the ball rolling, perhaps he can give some directions on the substantive issues which need clarification and how we should tackle these in small bite/byte size pieces?

John.

[Mohd Nizam Basiron]

Thanks for the feedback John, I guess we would have to exempt you from the CUP (Cruel and Unusual Punishment) reserved for non-posting members of RTF-L. To break the discussion down to more manageable size, may I suggest the following sub-topics:

1. Form of the mechanism (e.g., webpage attached to the main project website, e-newsletter or a printed newsletter, forum etc)

2. Content (what the mechanism should contain, for starters we could upload the national tables) but in the longer term copies of the laws would be useful (they need to be translated in some cases), contact list and areas of expertise, reference points etc.

3. Maintenance and updating.

[Mohd Nizam Basiron]

I have e-mailed all members of the RTF-L and requested that they log on. Below is the web address of Malaysia's Department of Environment which lists the laws on pollution in Malaysia. The laws themselves are not on the webpage but I'll be more than happt to provide them to anyone who is interested.

http://doe.gov.my/index.php

Nizam

[Duong Thanh An]

Dear colleagues and friends,

Below are the addresses where you can find Vietnamese laws in full text:

Webpage of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment - www.monre.gov.vn

Webpage of VEPA (English version available) - www.nea.gov.vn

Webpage of the National Assembly - www.na.gov.vn (contains all documents passed by the NA, including Codes, Acts, Ordinances, etc)

Webpage of the Ministry of Justice - www.moj.gov.vn (includes a link to the Official Gazette)

Portal of the Vietnamese Government - www.vietnam.gov.vn (all available legal documents available for download)

It was great to meet you all in Shantou and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Regards, An

[Mohd Nizam Basiron]

Hi all,

Before we move on to evaluate the webpages posted, I'd like to post a few more from the Philippines and Thailand. The DENR site from the Philippines and the PCD site from Thailand have "downloadable" laws. If there are no contributions from Indonesia and China, I'll search for the sites and post them in the next few days. The maybe we can on!

Philippines: http://www.denr.gov.ph/section.policies/www.emb.gov.ph

Thailand: http://www.pcd.go.th/indexEng.cfm

Cheers, Nizam