Page 139 - Supplemento 2-2016 (ENG)

Tackling Environmental Crime throUgh standardized Methodologies

The work of Agencies for Environmental Protection on territory
and development perspectives in the light of recent legislative
changes

Luca Marchesi
President “AssoARPA”

Thank you. Good evening to you all! First of all I would like to join in
thanking General Del Sette and General Patrone, who have permitted me to
represent here the work of ten thousand women and men who work every day
in the Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research and in the
Agencies for the Environment in the Regions and Provinces for scientific-
technical control, an understanding of the state of the environment and for
actions of scientific-technical support in the management of environmental
problems facing this country.

I say every day because, the Agencies, in particular, offer emergency ser-
vices 24 hours a day, 365 days a year: yet another thing in common, therefore,
with the forces of law and order. Dott. Santoloci described the situation well:
the Agencies have a vast and varied range of functions. They were set up in 94,
with what I would call an unjustifiable delay, compared to international tenden-
cies. Consider that the American EPA was founded in 1970, therefore about 25
years earlier. In that context a system was set up that, although not formalized
(I will return to this concept later), almost spontaneous I would say, was com-
posed of structures which dealt with control and technical and scientific kno-
wledge.

Were I to describe in brief what the mission of the Agencies is, it would
basically regard knowledge of the state of the environment, the role of preven-
tion, including education and information about the environment, and control.
With the term “control” we intend two different things: that “collaborative “
type of control which is also connected with more modern tendencies of natio-
nal and European legislation, in particular connected to the formulation of
effective legislation for the prevention of phenomena of pollution, and then
fiscal controls, on the other hand, through inspections and sanctions, that are

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