Compliance and Enforcement

Compliance and enforcement are often cited as two of the most challenging aspects of management effectiveness. 

Stakeholder engagement and outreach will greatly reduce the need for enforcement and conflicts with those who might not want to comply with regulations. This approach should be used first even if resources and enforcement efforts are not limited. Strong stakeholder support and compliance can also permit the use of enforcement methods involving volunteer surveillance and reporting. 

Enforcement includes a chain of activities all of which are important for effectiveness. These are:

• education and outreach, 

• surveillance and detection, 

• gathering, managing, analyzing, and applying compliance data and other intelligence, 

• interception and arrest, 

• prosecution, 

• rehabilitation, and 

• sanctions

Some parts of the chain can be implemented at the site (e.g., surveillance and gathering intelligence) while others often depend on external bodies (e.g., local police for arrests, or courts for prosecution and sanctions). If one component or link in the enforcement chain does not function properly, it can undermine the results of the entire chain.

Therefore, identifying gaps in effectiveness throughout the chain is critical.

Ensuring all parties engaged in the enforcement process understand the implications of violations to the objectives of the site and exploring ways to work collaboratively can be critical for effective enforcement. Protocols for collaboration between groups can be identified and decided formally through documents such as joint enforcement agreements. 

For example, if the courts do not prosecute violations because they are heard with a variety of other cases seemingly more important (e.g., domestic violence), MPA enforcement may become widely perceived as ineffective. Lack of prosecution may not only encourage further violations, but also may discourage compliance. In such cases, exploring ways to work with the judicial system may be needed. In some areas, environmental courts or dockets have been established and provide regular time periods (e.g., one day a month) to address environmental cases and include a judge and prosecutors who have been trained in resource management topics. Furthermore, some environmental courts can assign violators to conservation-focused community service as an alternative to a fine. This can facilitate a rehabilitation process with an educational element minimizing the potential for repeat violators. In other cases, the enforcement chain may be driven by cultural or traditional practices for conflict resolutions to address violators. In each case, decisions on sanctions should reflect the local situation (financial penalties vs cultural protocols), and the violation itself (e.g., is this a repeat offender?).