Meeting Report
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Meeting Report Sub-Regional DNA Consultative Meeting on the Final Regulatory Action Evaluation Toolkit and Other Approaches under the Rotterdam Convention Tbilisi, Georgia 21-23 February 2018 I. Background 1. The Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade establishes an international mechanism to regulate the trade of pesticides and industrial chemicals that are contained in its Annex III. Chemicals are listed in Annex III based on notifications of Final Regulatory Actions (FRAs) by the Parties within the scope of the Rotterdam Convention. 2. Some developing countries have limited capacity to undertake risk assessments or related risk evaluations for a scientifically sound decision-making on hazardous chemicals. Further, for Parties to conform to the obligations under paragraph 2 of Article 10 of the Convention on import of chemicals listed in Annex III, the countries have to make a national decision on future imports of those chemicals. It constitutes a review of measures in place on respective Annex III chemicals and evaluate the risks and make necessary regulatory control decisions including future imports. 3. The Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Rotterdam Convention, at its seventh meeting by decision RC-7/1on proposal for activities to increase notifications of final regulatory action, requested the Secretariat to collect, among others, scientific and technical information for risk assessments and decision-making and to make it available in a user-friendly format. 4. Over 200 chemicals with notifications of final regulatory actions by Parties from single PIC region are awaiting another notification from a different PIC region to initiate the process for review by the Chemical Review Committee (CRC) of the Rotterdam Convention. These notifications contain scientific and technical information on the chemicals related to decision-making. Additionally, there are risk assessments and scientific literature available at the Secretariat on chemicals that have met Annex II criteria and those already listed in Annex III. Scientific literature is also available on chemicals reviewed by the POPs Review Committee of the Stockholm Convention. 5. The Secretariat, in consultation with a some experts on the work of the CRC and DNAs, developed an online toolkit (FRA Evaluation toolkit) aimed at assisting and enhancing the efforts by DNAs, especially from developing countries, to facilitate scientifically sound decision making and submitting the notifications of FRAs. 6. The Secretariat, in conjunction with Basel and Stockholm conventions Regional Centres and DNAs in selected pilot countries also carried out pilot projects on industrial chemicals and developed an Interactive Toolkit for the Sound Management of Industrial Chemicals under the BRS conventions. 7. In addition to the above initiatives by the Secretariat, there are many tools and guidance materials developed by other international agencies relevant to scientifically sound management of chemicals. 8. Promotion of access to the above tools and approaches would strengthen the decision-making capacities in countries for scientifically sound lifecycle management of chemicals within the scope of Rotterdam Convention. This will contribute to protecting human health and the environment from the Secretariat of the Rotterdam Convention Page | 2 adverse effects of these chemicals while meeting obligations under the Rotterdam Convention and other related MEAs. II. Meeting objectives - Promote the FRA Evaluation Toolkit and other tools to facilitate scientifically sound decision-making on chemicals of national concerns. - Guidance for the compilation of scientific and technical information on hazardous chemicals within the scope of Rotterdam Convention. - Facilitate the strengthening of existing national structures and mechanisms for cooperation and coordination for the sustainable management of chemicals in an integrated manner. - Provide guidance on data collection for surveillance and monitoring, risk assessment/management of hazardous chemicals. - Raise awareness on the Prior Informed Consent (PIC) procedure and newly listed chemicals. - Assist compiling the information in the format of notification of FRAs for submission under the Convention. III. Participants 9. DNAs of both pesticides and industrial chemicals from Russia, Serbia, Armenia and Georgia (hereinafter “participating countries”), including one scientific/technical officer from each country involved in reviewing scientific and technical information for decision-making on FRAs were invited. Please see Appendix I for the list of participants. IV. Opening 10. The Sub-Regional DNA Consultative Meeting on the Final Regulatory Action Evaluation Toolkit and Other Approaches under the Rotterdam Convention was held at the LEPL Environmental Information and Education Center Tbilisi, Georgia from 21-23 February 2018. Mr. Gamini Manuweera of the Secretariat of Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions opened the meeting at 9:15 am on Wednesday 21st February by welcoming the participants. 11. Ms. Nino Tandilashvili, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia made opening remarks and welcomed all participants to Tbilisi. She recalled that the focus of the meeting is to facilitate user-friendly access to information for DNAs to make scientifically-sound decisions and strengthening of existing national structures and mechanisms for enhanced cooperation and coordination for the sustainable management of chemicals. 12. Ms. Tandilashvili emphasised that Georgia, as a Party of the Rotterdam Convention and as a country with economy in transition, considers implementation of the Rotterdam Convention as very important. She note that efficient implementation of the Convention promotes sound management of chemicals to ensure protection of human health and environment on national, regional and global levels. Georgia implements an array of activities contributing to the implementation of the Rotterdam convention. The respective national regulatory act is elaborated, adopted and periodically updated to be reflective of the Convention and other international environmental requirements. 13. She also highlighted Georgia’s interest and readiness to cooperate on national, regional and global levels for the full and effective implementation of the Rotterdam Convention. 14. Concluding the remarks, Ms. Tandilashvili thanked the Secretariat for its role in organizing the event and wished for a very fruitful meeting. 15. Representing the BRS Secretariat, Mr. Gamini Manuweera, thanked the Government of Georgia for hosting the meeting, the resource persons for their contributions and the participants for attending the meeting. He indicated that the Secretariat is conducting a series of DNA consultative meetings of similar focus in different regions as a response to a COP decision to assist countries in scientifically sound decision making on final regulatory actions (FRAs)and consequently, increasing notifications under the Secretariat of the Rotterdam Convention Page | 3 Rotterdam Convention. He indicated that a similar meeting had already been held in the African and Asian regions. Concluding his remarks, Mr. Manuweera thanked the European Union for its generous financial support for organising the meeting and for the development of the FRA Evaluation toolkit. V. Summary of the proceedings 16. The provisional agenda of the meeting was adopted without amendments (Appendix II). 17. The BRS Secretariat presenting the scope, purpose and structure of the workshop highlighted that the objective was to enhance scientific soundness in decision making on FRAs, towards increasing notifications of FRAs under the Rotterdam Convention. He underscored that the meeting is participatory in nature as it was meant to transfer knowledge and enhance understanding on using the tools and other resources for decision making on chemicals. He urged participants to be free to ask questions from the presenters and the Facilitator so that they can have maximum benefits of the technical sessions. He outlined the meeting programme and indicated that the participants were asked to compile a list of a minimum of 5 priority chemicals in their respective countries. A preliminary assessment of priority chemicals to identify information gaps and the way-forward for collection and compilation of additional information to facilitate scientifically sound decision-making on possible regulatory actions would be done by the participants supported by the Facilitator. The meeting would include briefing sessions, group activities and discussions (within groups and plenary sessions). He indicated that the participants would undertake an initial review of scientific and technical information on the chemicals identified as being of national priority using the FRA evaluation toolkit and compliment with information from other resources including FAO Pesticide Registration toolkit and WHO Human Health Risk Assessment Toolkit. He informed the participants that, towards the end of the meeting, there would be an opportunity to identify areas for collaboration and information sharing among the DNAs from participating countries and from possible other regions. 18. Mr. Aleksandar Mihajlovski from the Rotterdam Convention Secretariat at FAO, Rome made a presentation on the Rotterdam Convention’s history, objective, scope, key provisions and key operational elements. His presentation