Associate Research Professor Jamie Pleune traveled to Tirana, Albania, in April as part of a team from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Commercial Law Development Program that facilitated a multi-lateral workshop and legal consultation on mining policies and responsible mining.
Pleune is a member of the Law and Policy Program in the Wallace Stegner Center for Land, Resources and the Environment. Her research focuses on issues of climate change, conservation, permitting, and public lands management.
The workshop, “Permitting, Licensing, and Best Practices for Mining Governance,” brought together representatives from Montenegro, Albania, and North Macedonia to exchange experiences and strengthen regional cooperation in mineral resource management.
Pleune and her colleagues on the team facilitated discussions regarding permitting and licensing procedures, as well as best practices for mining and minerals governance—with particular emphasis on closing legal and regulatory gaps and strengthening oversight of mineral resource extraction.
“It was an honor to be asked to work with the Commercial Law Development Program to develop and host this workshop,” Pleune said. “I loved meeting regulators from Albania, Montenegro, and Macedonia, and it was incredibly rewarding to see that the research being conducted by the Stegner Center’s Law & Policy Program was relevant and useful for addressing the real-world problems they faced.”
The workshop was held in coordination with the U.S. Embassy in Tirana, and was supported by the Office of Energy Supply Chains within the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Economic, Energy, and Business Affairs.