Natural Resources and Violent Conflict - WaterWiki.net

where did it come from? 111enforcement information, but many government departments in the developingworld are not Internet enabled or restrict access to high-levelofficials who fail to transmit information down the line.Extensive new technologies can make a big difference to nationaland international enforcement efforts. Compliance and inspectionmethodologies such as vessel monitoring systems, fine-scale satellitemonitoring of forestry concessions, and forensic analysis of wildlifetraffic have considerable potential to achieve economies of effort andlower monitoring costs. Despite this enormous potential, systems willbe developed only if policy needs for their use are clearly identified. Atpresent, technological developments precede policy rather than beingdriven by it, suggesting the need to promote directly the developmentof new enforcement methodologies and forensics.Element 3: Commodity Labeling and AuditedChain-of-Custody ArrangementsClearly, the core of any CTR is the ability to trace commodities and todistinguish approved materials for accounting and inventory control.Labels, certificates, or markings should supply important informationabout the origins of a commodity, how it has been produced, and whohas been involved in the chain of supply. Chain-of-custody certificationtakes such labeling a step further by monitoring the commodity flowitself to ensure that commodities bearing a label have been producedfrom certified sources including monitoring at the point a raw productis extracted or mined, receipt at first measurement of the raw commodity,checks at delivery points, verification at each stage of processing orproduction, and tracking of movement through brokers, wholesaledealers, exporting and importing agents, and retailers. Procedures willinevitably differ depending on the commodity. Nevertheless, it is stillpossible to establish minimum requirements for chain of custody thatmay be used as a template for implementing chain-of-custody certificationprocesses. Chain-of-custody certification may be built intocommodity tracking systems that use product labels to differentiateproducts from verifiably legal or sustainably managed sources.The reliability and integrity of any chain-of-custody system willdepend on the transparent and independent auditing of procedures.Centralized and transparent monitoring is clearly essential; oversightshould not be dispersed among various units, as separate audits ofeach link in the marketing chain create problems of varying methodologyand investigative gaps. Similarly, it would be very difficult forconsumer countries to cooperate with producers to check custodyarrangements if information were not centralized.