Advances in remote sensing, geographic information systems (GIS), and availability of satellite images have provided new tools to assist developed and developing countries alike in ensuring environmental compliance and enforcement.
These new information tools can increasingly allow enforcement bodies to rapidly collect and analyse data of any location at any time. While monitoring through remote sensing is not appropriate to meeting all the requirements of environmental legislation, recent dramatic developments in satellite capabilities now offer significant new opportunities. For example, remote sensing can provide evidence of responsibility in remote areas, track movements of waste, monitor damage to protected areas or coastlines, and check reporting of national commitments of atmospheric emissions.
There has been growing international interest in whether these emerging technologies could provide rigorous, legally reliable, and cost effective tools for environmental compliance and enforcement. Although still in its infancy as enforcement and monitoring tools, its potential is increasingly being recognised. The use of satellite imagery as a surveillance tool is already expressly authorised in some European Community legislation, which gives Member States the option of using it to monitor claims for farm subsidies and fish catches.
In seeking to challenge evidence of non-compliance or violations, defendants in legal proceeds may be expected to challenge the the admissibility or reliability of evidence from these new technologies. Evidence from such technologies, however, has been accepted as evidence in cases before the International Court of Justice and in a growing number of national courts across the world. For example, in India, the Supreme Court of India and the High Courts have used satellite images as admissible evidence in forest encroachment cases to ensure compliance with the Forest (Conservation) Act of 1980. In fact, the Supreme Court of India has established the Central Empowered Committee, which is a subsidiary body to review such evidence.
Remote sensing and GIS can also be used proactively in planning to promote compliance. There are still a number of unresolved technical and legal issues associated with the use of remote sensing information in environmental compliance and enforcement initiatives. University College London (UCL) is undertaking a three-year project that examines “Satellite Monitoring as a Legal Compliance Tool in the Environmental Sector”. The project will explore the potential and significance of employing satellite monitoring data as a tool for environmental compliance. It will draw upon international experience to date and assess the opportunities that may be provided.
For more information on the project, see http://www.ucl.ac.uk/
laws/environment/satellites/index.shtml or contact uctlrap@ucl.ac.uk.
Columbia University has also recently concluded a project that examined “Remote Sensing in Support of Ecosystem Management Treaties and Transboundary Conservation”.
For more information on that project, see http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/rs-treaties/laguna.html or contact adesherbinin@ciesin.columbia.edu See also http://www.earthobservations.org or http://envisat.esa.int