NEWS RELEASE                           MAY 30, 2001

ANRET CONFERENCE FOR JAMAICA, JUNE 3-6

The 16^th Annual Conference of the Association for Natural Resources Enforcement Trainers will be held at the Trelawny Beach Hotel, Trelawny, Jamaica from June 3-6, 2001.  The Conference is aimed at sharing information on ways of achieving compliance with Environmental Laws and Effective Enforcement and it is expected that it will facilitate greater cooperation between jurisdictions and the expansion of the network of Enforcement Officers.  Participants will include training officers, prosecutors and various field officers involved in Environmental Enforcement from the Caribbean, Mexico, Central and North America and Canada.

Topics to be deliberated include; Conflict Resolution, Environmental Justice and Conservation, Detection, Imposition and Sanctions, Enforcement Officers Role and the Public Role in Building a Culture of Compliance, Team Initiatives and Interagency Cooperative Efforts and The Role of DNA Analysis in Wildlife Crime Detection.  The Conference will also focus on cooperation and team-building and participants will engage in a site visit.  Presentations will be made by resource personnel from; United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), National Environmental and Planning Agency (NEPA), Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) and Caribbean Coastal Area Management (CCAM).

The Association for National Resources Environmental Trainers (ANRET) was founded in 1986 out of a need to share and where possible to standardize training information and materials for the benefit of environmental enforcement agencies.  The organisation’s membership comprises representatives from the international community and aims to; promote a more efficient and safer working environment for natural resource officers, encourage and develop efficient cooperative law enforcement practices among natural resource enforcement agencies, promote law enforcement research and development, provide a medium for the collection and dissemination of training information and hold an annual workshop /conference to facilitate the exchange of training information.

The 15^th ANRET Conference was held in Winnipeg, Manitoba on June 4-7, last year.  Three (3) officers from the Regulatory and Compliance Unit, NRCA represented Jamaica.  Two officers spent an additional week working in the field with Manitoba Enforcement Officers.  

.

Contact:          Ruthlyn Johnson

Tel.:                754-7550-1/4, 754-7540/3/8

Email:             nrca@infochan.com

Website:         http://www.nrca.org