[1] It was founded by Italian lawyer and security consultant Mario Scaramella along with his partner Filippo Marino in Naples, Italy in 1997.
Describing itself as a "permanent intergovernmental conference" focusing on environmental crime with rotating presidencies by such countries as Samoa and Angola, 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.
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 nations.
ECPP has used aerial surveillance and the remote sensing capabilities of satellites to detect environmental crimes in Eastern ( in particoular Russia ) and Southern Europe and eco-terrorism in Central Africa and South America."
Among the mysteries of the ECPP was a supposed "IV Plenary Conference"[2] held at the United States Environmental Protection Agency's offices in New York, which Scaramella used to register for intergovernmental status.