Consultative Meeting on Obsolete Pesticides
Management in the Caribbean
Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago
23-24 March 2006
May 2006
Issued by
The Basel Convention Regional Centre for the Caribbean
Trinidad and Tobago
Consultative Meeting on Obsolete Pesticides Management in the Caribbean
Trinidad and Tobago, 23 March - 24 March 2006
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Report Summary 3
Narrative Report 4
Conclusions and Recommendation 8
Annex I – Agenda 10
Annex II - List of Participants 13
Consultative Meeting on Obsolete Pesticides Management in the Caribbean
Trinidad and Tobago, 23 March - 24 March 2006
1. Report Summary
The Secretariat of the Basel Convention, UNEP Chemicals and the Basel Convention Regional Centre for the Caribbean (BCCRC) held a ‘Consultative Meeting on Obsolete Pesticide Management in the Caribbean’ on March 23-24, 2006 at the Cascadia Hotel, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
The meeting served as a support for the development of the project on Obsolete Pesticide Management in the Caribbean. The Project was set up as a regional approach for the launching of an initiative for the removal and final disposal of obsolete stocks of pesticides. It includes both Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) and non-POPs pesticides and, where necessary and feasible, PCB waste. The project seeks to establish a policy and long-term mechanism for the prevention and the minimization of unwanted stocks of pesticides and their ESM, including their final disposal.
This meeting’s purpose, therefore, was to review and to enhance project collaboration in a more effective and efficient manner for capacity building and technology transfer between countries in the Caribbean region. To this extent, the BCCRC was recognized as being a key hub for achieving the goal of this project. The BCCRC could assist in identifying and understanding the interregional synergies, since a regional approach leverages resources, both human and financial, and implementation becomes more effective.
Participants from all the countries serviced by the BCCRC, with the exception of Guyana, attended the meeting. Also in attendance were representatives from Haiti, Suriname and other agencies/stakeholders, namely Crop Life Latin America, Costa Rica; CAB International, Caribbean and Latin America Regional Centre, Trinidad; Trinidad Cement Limited (TCL), Trinidad; Solid Waste Management Company (SWMCOL), Trinidad; and MacViro Consultants, Trinidad.
Participants had the opportunity to review the draft proposal for ‘The Final Disposal of Existing Waste Pesticides and Selected POPs in the Caribbean and the Prevention of Future Accumulation’. The workshop also counted with the participation of representatives from GTZ Bonn, Germany and the Caribbean Regional Coordinating Unit (CAR-RCU), Jamaica.
The meeting also included many presentations; for example the Regional Seas representative identified the management of pesticides and other chemicals as one of the key areas of focus for controlling pollution from Land Based Resources (LBS). In this instance, risk is high to the very fragile Caribbean marine environment, and such land pollution also has the potential to contaminate land resources and to have adverse effects on human health. Consequently projects are to begin to reduce the contamination of the Caribbean Seas via LBS, with national projects in Jamaica and Costa Rica. Additionally, a complete inventory of pollutant sources entering the marine environment is currently underway. An integrated approach to the issue of management of chemicals from a whole life-cycle standpoint and harnessing the synergies of the Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) were strongly recommended, especially to make the Environmentally Sound Management (ESM) of pesticides sustainable from a financial perspective.
Pursuant to the country presentations, additional inputs to the draft project proposal were discussed in detail. Accordingly, estimates of obsolete pesticides on the more limited data available prior to the workshop may now be revised. (For instance, 24 Mg of obsolete pesticides was identified for disposal in Suriname, which was not originally included in the estimate of 285 Mg reported in the draft proposal).
Further into the proceedings of the workshop, participants were introduced to the General Technical Guidelines for the ESM of wastes consisting of, containing or contaminated with pesticides such as Aldrin, Chlorodane, Dieldrin, Endrin, Heptachlor, Hexachlorobenzene (HCB), Mirex or Toxaphene or with HCB as an industrial chemical, (POST-OEWG 4 Version: 15 July 2005). The General Technical Guidelines for the ESM of Wastes consisting of, containing or contaminated with POPs (Basel Convention) and presentations from the GTZ on Hazardous Waste Management included issues on analytical procedures, inventory and data base programming.
Two breakout groups were formed in order to analyze eleven questions (Appendix I) and to discuss seventeen key issues (Appendix II) identified at plenary. Reports of the groups were used to draw conclusions reported in Appendix III. In this sense, it was found to be still necessary to prepare more detailed national inventories using tools which might be available through the GTZ, in order to develop capacity with analyses performed in the region with appropriate training and public awareness campaigns, as well as legislative and regulatory reforms.
The workshop specifically identified the development of a harmonized regional registration system, reflective of the synergistic relationship of the MEAs, in particular the Stockholm, Rotterdam and Basel Conventions. Ten other recommendations were made by the workshop and are listed below.
2. Narrative Report
The Consultative meeting on Obsolete Pesticides Management was carried out in accordance to the agenda, which is located in Annex I. During the course of the conference, participants were first introduced to the draft project proposal, followed by an open forum for the exchange of ideas and comments. Subsequent to this introduction, participating countries each gave individual reports on the current status of obsolete pesticides. Finally, the conference participants formed three working groups to discuss technical and finance matters; legal, administrative institutional matters; and preventive measures and long-term strategy to avoid accumulation of pesticides in a finalisation of the project document.
Opening Session
The session was opened by a representative of the Ministry for Environment to welcome the participants, followed by the Chairman of the meeting, a representative from the BCRC Caribbean, Dr. Ronnie Sookhoo. Dr. Sookhoo introduced his regional center and the work to be covered in the coming sessions. He also highlighted that the Basel Secretariat and UNEP Chemicals had jointly organized the program, and gave a special thanks to the representatives to these organisations, Ms. Claudia Fénérol and Dr. Andreas Arlt for the Basel Convention and Mr. Christopher Corbin and Paul Whylie for UNEP Chemicals. Dr. Sookhoo also welcomed the State parties, as well as the representatives from industry and other stakeholders.
Following the Chairman’s reception, Claudia Fénérol addressed the participants. She expressed the best wishes from the Executive Secretary of the Basel Convention and also gave a brief introduction to the three chemical conventions currently in force under the UNEP family, the Basel Convention, the Stockholm Convention, and the Rotterdam Convention. Ms. Fénérol expressed her gratitude to Mr. Paul Whylie, the Programme Officer, for his help and motivation. Furthermore she stressed the importance of the Regional Centres in the further collaboration and capacity building in the Caribbean in order to address the stockpiles of obsolete pesticides and the prevention of such stockpiles in the future.
Mr. Paul Whylie was the next speaker to address the participants as a representative from UNEP Chemicals. He thanked Canadian government for the funding made available to support this project, and also expressed his enthusiasm for the fruitful cooperation between the two Secretariats. He concluded by sharing his experiences working on this project nationally in Jamaica and how beneficial it will be to extent a similar program to the entire region.
Mr. Christopher Corbin continued welcoming of the participants, reiterating the importance of controlling land based pollution sources in the region and commending the cooperation of the BCRCs, the Basel Convention, and UNEP Chemicals. Mr. Corbin enumerated several specific activities in which smaller, regional actions are being piloted in similar fields and expressed his hope to see them continued in this project.
Subsequent to the welcoming addresses, the participants introduced themselves, and Ms. Fénérol then concluded the opening session with an introduction to the agenda and presentation of the programme.
Session 1
In the first session of the conference, Dr. Andreas Arlt presented the Regional Project for the disposal of existing waste pesticides and selected POPs in the Caribbean and the prevention of future accumulation, otherwise known as The Caribbean Pesticides Project, in which he discussed the proposal, the expect outcomes, and the key questions to be addressed. Dr. Arlt presented the details of the objectives, budget and funding, timeline and duration, implementation strategy, and participating countries. The full text of his presentation may be found in Annex III. Dr. Arlt also presented a list of key issues to be discussed in further detail with the participating countries and organisations.
Key issues addressed by participants related to pesticides project in the Caribbean:
1. Many countries would need to prepare (a more detailed) inventory of pesticides in the region.
2. Some stockpiles may need immediate attention.
3. Identification of some stocks may be necessary. Therefore, laboratory capacity should be reconciled.
4. Various levels of policy and regulatory programmes exist and require coordination/harmonization.
5. Empty pesticides containers represent a serious disposal problem.
6. Training of customs, distributors, and especially large users and importers, is required.
7. Accumulation in most countries of obsolete pesticides is an issue as inventories are not complete, however, in the future, it might be something that can best handled locally over the long-term.
8. Designated storage facilities for obsolete pesticides are not available.
9. PCBs in use and mixed in waste are issues in all countries.
10. Many countries have ongoing related projects and committees, synergies in this regard should be considered so as to avoid duplication of work.
11. Public awareness needs to be increased.
12. Use of disposal team in early stages of repackaging of high risk stocks may be required.
13. Most countries welcome a regional approach for disposal and any harmonized process for future containment of obsolete pesticides may be confirmed.
14. Obsolete stocks of pesticides are not adequately monitored and most countries require a collection programme
15. Pesticides donations given by international organizations still pose a problem in some countries.
16. Registration of pesticides pose an issue for countries, which might be addressed by a harmonized regional registration system
17. Risk assessment of existing stockpiles
Session 2
The second session of the meeting consisted of the individual country reports on the status of their internal stockpiles of obsolete pesticides. Of the participants, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Guyana, Haiti, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago presented the known amounts of stockpiled pesticides and PVC containing material. The full text of these presentations may be found in Annex III.
Session 3
In the third session, Ms. Marion Häse presented on behalf of GTZ, German Technical Cooperation, on the management of obsolete pesticides and selected POPs in the Caribbean and the prevention of future accumulation. She began with a brief introduction to GTZ as an organisation to give its history, list example actions it undertakes, and explain its service sectors in society. Then Ms. Häse proceeded to discuss the management of obsolete pesticides. She provided technical definitions of key terms, explained the general disposal procedure, and gave instructions on how studies and inventories should be carried out. She also showed an example of a proper disposal of obsolete pesticides in Mauritania and concluded with recommendations for the best disposal method.
The third and final session of the conference finalized the project document and began planning its implementation. To this end, the participants formed three working groups to discuss the following issues: technical and financial matters; legal, administrative institutional matters; and preventive measures and long-term strategy to avoid the accumulation of pesticides (technical, financial, and legal matters). After the dialogue, each working group reported its findings back to the plenary to be included into the project proposal, along with comment received prior to the meeting, plus other results of participants’ concerns. During the third and final session, Ms. Claudia Fénérol also discussed with the participants a strategy for sustainable financing, in which she mentioned potential donor agencies and the role of national governments in such resource mobilization actions. Please see below for the key points addressed by the Working Groups in the third session.
Questions and Considerations for the Working Groups
1. Can burying really be considered a viable ESM for SIDS with land resource restrictions and where smaller SIDS have high saline water tables coastally and high fresh water tables otherwise?
2. Are there safe handling protocols especially for “unknowns” to reduce inherent hazards? Action possibly to obtain existing protocols for early application.
3. Are there facilities (laboratories etc), pure samples/standards etc in LAC-SIDS which can be used to identify, group, classify “unknowns” to reduce hazards/risks? Ability to classify/identify unknowns will be critical to possible cross-boundary support/assistance.
4. What opportunities exist for synergies for #2, #3 intra-regionally? (CEHI, Bureaus of Standards, PCBoards/Authorities etc).
5. What mechanisms, legislations will affect the Tran boundary movement of partially defined substances between LAC-SIDS thus supporting or blocking potential sharing of expertise and capabilities? Existing national legislations require definition of substance for export-import activities between Parties. Will partially defined substances be destined to remain in the state of origin? How will this then be treated?
6. Do financial mechanisms exist to draw out unaccounted obsolete pesticides in private storage?
7. Is there any focus on pollution reduction/pollution prevention through the
a. Reduction of imports through public awareness campaigns on hazards.
b. Reduction of imports through public awareness campaign on appropriate alternatives.
c. Reduced application based on research on efficacy of customary practices/presumed concentrations to achieve objectives.