| Date of establishment |
2004 |
| Legal basis |
Decision 21/27 of the UNEP Governing Council on Compliance with and enforcement of multilateral environmental agreements |
| Objective |
To enhance the capacity of customs and other relevant enforcement personnel to monitor and facilitate the legal trade and to detect and prevent illegal trade in environmentally-sensitive commodities covered by the relevant conventions and multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs). |
| Nature |
Informal partnership of international organizations cooperating to prevent the illegal trade in environmentally-sensitive commodities and to facilitate the legal trade in these. |
| Membership |
GCI partners comprise the secretariats of the relevant multilateral environmental agreements (Basel/Rotterdam/Stockholm Conventions, Cartagena Protocol, CITES, Montreal Protocol), as well as Interpol, Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, UNEP, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and WCO. (See separate fact sheets for WCO and Interpol) |
| Observers |
Observers may be invited by the GCI partners to attend their meetings. |
| Geographical scope |
Global (with a focus on developing countries) |
| Substantive scope |
Ozone depleting substances (ODS), toxic chemicals, hazardous wastes, endangered species and living-modified organisms |
| Governance structure |
GCI partners meet on an annual basis. |
| Cooperation |
GCI works closely with a number of other regional and international organizations. Please see http://www.greencustoms.org/partners/index.htm for more details. |
| Activities |
GCI is designed to complement and enhance existing customs training efforts under the respective agreements through:
- Workshops for capacity building and training of customs officers (see http://www.greencustoms.org/workshops/);
- Development of tools for enforcement activities including Green Customs Guide, e-learning modules developed in cooperation with WCO, website and materials
|
| Source of funding |
The Green Customs Initiative has been funded to date from a range of donors (with the UN Development Account and Norway as the largest contributors.) Also Montreal Protocol Multilateral Fund, UNEP Supplementary Environment F und , GEF, USA State Department, Finland, Czech Republic, OPCW. In kind contributions by GCI Partners. |
| Contact information |
Green Customs Secretariat,
United Nations Environment Programme, Division of Technology, Industry and Economics, OzonAction Branch,
15 rue de Milan, 75441 Paris CEDEX 09, France |
| Website |
http://www.greencustoms.org/ |