The Environmental Crime Prevention Program (ECPP) was an organization which tracked dumped

nuclear waste Radioactive waste is a type of hazardous waste that contains radioactive material. Radioactive waste is a result of many activities, including nuclear medicine, nuclear research, nuclear power generation, rare-earth mining, and nuclear weapons r ...

, including

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

nuclear missiles Nuclear weapons delivery is the technology and systems used to place a nuclear weapon at the position of detonation, on or near its target. Several methods have been developed to carry out this task. ''Strategic'' nuclear weapons are used primari ...

left over from the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

. It was founded by Italian lawyer and security consultant

Mario Scaramella Mario Scaramella (born 23 April 1970 ) is a lawyer, security consultant and academic nuclear expert. He came to international prominence in 2006 in connection with the poisoning of the ex- FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko. As responsible for intell ...

along with his partner Filippo Marino in

Naples, Italy Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

in 1997. Describing itself as an "permanent intergovernmental conference" focusing on

environmental crime Environmental crime is an illegal act which directly harms the environment. These illegal activities involve the environment, wildlife, biodiversity and natural resources. International bodies such as, G8, Interpol, European Union, United Nation ...

with rotating presidencies by such countries as

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands (Manono Island, Manono an ...

and

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

, Sri Lanka and Slovakia, Romania and the US, its true purpose remains difficult to discern, and recently the ECPP has attracted the attention of Italian investigative authorities, who consider it to be a probable intelligence front organization.

Mission and purpose

The website of Environmental Security International quotes Scaramella as describing the mission of the ECPP as "providing environmental protection and security through technology on a global basis, particularly for

developing nation A developing country is a sovereign state with a lesser developed industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreem ...

s. ECPP has offices at the Fucino Space Center in Italy, the largest civilian space center in the world. ECPP has used

aerial surveillance A surveillance aircraft is an aircraft used for surveillance. They are operated by military forces and other government agencies in roles such as intelligence gathering, battlefield surveillance, airspace surveillance, reconnaissance, observat ...

and the

remote sensing Remote sensing is the acquisition of information about an object or phenomenon without making physical contact with the object, in contrast to in situ or on-site observation. The term is applied especially to acquiring information about Earth ...

capabilities of

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...

s to detect environmental crimes in Eastern ( in particoular Russia ) and Southern Europe and eco-terrorism in Central Africa and South America."

Stealth conferences

Among the mysteries of the ECPP was a supposed "IV Plenary Conference" held at the

United States Environmental Protection Agency The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...

's offices in New York, which Scaramella used to register for intergovernmental status. The ECPP's IV Plenary Conference reportedly lasted for all of one hour.Claudio Gatti
How one man insinuated himself into poisoning case
''International Herald Tribune'' January 9, 2007 The ECPP didn't even hold a First Plenary Conference, as Scaramella thought it more credible to directly pass to the Second Conference in order to succeed in fund-raising. The "IV Plenary Conference" was then used by Scaramella to give credit to his shell organisation when he went to see other official organisations.

References

Front organizations Environmental organisations based in Italy {{crime-stub