Natural Resources and Violent Conflict - WaterWiki.net

104 crossin, hayman, and taylorThus poached ivory was crudely carved or modified to avoid trade restrictions.Similarly, disagreement exists on the exact meaning of smallarms—a major reason why there is still no international conventioncontrolling supply and trade. The Kimberley process covers “roughdiamonds” but does not specify when such commodities becomefinished diamonds and are no longer tracked.If a lack of consensus prevents international agreement, then multilateralor regional arrangements provide a useful interim opportunityfor partners to cooperate. This may include agreements on collaborationbetween customs officials, law enforcement agencies, export andimport regulations, recognized and verifiable certification and chainof-supplydocumentation, information sharing, and capacity building(especially in the case of developing countries). For example, the April2002 memorandum of understanding signed between the Indonesianand United Kingdom governments on forest law enforcement cooperationprovides for a test case on cooperation between a major producerand consumer of tropical timber on comparing import andexport data. The memorandum also allows for focused technicalassistance and capacity building for the government to gather trade statisticsand oversee export licensing. Similarly, there are several regionalagreements on the control of small arms and light weapons whose measurescould be merged to create a more comprehensive global trackingsystem.As with small arms and light weapons, regional agreements may bea good interim solution for illegal logging. A crucial first step would beto undertake bilateral cooperation between producer and consumercountries to enforce domestic legislation in both. If not in existence,legislation should be passed in producing countries to outlaw illegallogging. Consumer countries should recognize this legislation, and abilateral agreement between the two countries should ban the trade inillegal timber. These bilateral agreements would form a body of internationallaw that, in turn, could form the basis of a future multilateralinternational agreement.Element 2: Efficient Reporting Structure and EffectiveInformation ExchangeUnless partners efficiently and accurately report key information andshare intelligence in a way that facilitates enforcement, commoditytracking becomes an exercise in moving paper. Clear international andnational management structures and contact points are needed, as wellas coordinated facilities for information exchange and cooperation,such as accessible databases and intelligence-sharing agreements.