NOAA Administrator Dr. Jane Lubchenco has called for a National Enforcement Summit as one component of her response to the Inspector General's Report of January 2010. The Summit will convene a broad array of invited stakeholders and experts to assist NOAA’s leadership in improving compliance with regulations and developing forward-looking strategies to advance its enforcement programs to protect and sustain the nation's marine resources.
NOAA's objectives for this one-day summit are to elicit ideas and recommendations for:
• working with constituents and state and federal partners to improve compliance and enhance the effectiveness of our marine-related enforcement activities;
• NOAA's draft plan for setting national and regional enforcement priorities (plan will be released and posted to the website on July 23).
• improving our communications with regulated communities and other stakeholders; and
• establishing approaches for consistency and transparency that contribute to public confidence in our enforcement program.
Through the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution, NOAA has retained a neutral third party, Susan Podziba & Associates, to assist in the design and facilitation of the Summit. Susan Podziba is a senior public policy mediator who assists organizations and individuals to construct innovative processes for addressing contentious policy debates and differences. For more information on the U.S. Institute, please click on this link to the USIECR website: www.ecr.gov.
Process
This is a one-day, working Summit with approximately 80 invited participants. Participants were selected based upon their expertise in the issue and experience with natural resource management and regulation at the federal, state, and local levels. In addition, participants will represent a wide cross-section of people from regulated communities and non-governmental organizations.
To develop the Summit design, NOAA solicited advice and input from experienced public and private sector parties who interact with NOAA’s enforcement program as members of regulated communities and stakeholders as well as those who have broad experience with state and federal enforcement programs. Through the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution, NOAA retained Susan Podziba, Public Policy Mediator at Susan Podziba & Associates, to assist in the design and facilitation of the Summit. An overview of the assessment interviews can be found here: Overview of Assessment Interviews
To ensure input is received from those interested in this issue/event, an online survey has been developed. The responses to this survey will be summarized to help guide the summit discussion. In addition, the event will be webcast live and videotaped for later reference.
See this story from NOAA.