|
UNITED NATIONS
ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME |
|
|
UNITED NATIONS
ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME |
|
For use as information
Not an official record
INFORMATION
NOTE
NAIROBI/GENEVA, February 2000 -
Member countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) will be
participating in a workshop sponsored by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
on managing persistent organic pollutants (POPs), 14-16 February in Lusaka, Zambia. Government representatives will be coming from
health, agriculture, industry, and environment sectors, representing the cross-cutting
nature of the issues involved.
The agenda for the workshop will
include discussion of approaches to reduce and/or eliminate such POPs as polychlorinated
biphenyls, dioxins and furans, and certain pesticides; assessment of needs for capacity
building and initiation of work on national plans; and strengthening of regional
cooperation. It will also feature results of
the workshop sponsored by the World Health Organization’s Regional Office for Africa
8-10 February in Harare, Zimbabwe on reducing reliance on DDT for malaria control.
“Meetings like the one in Lusaka
give governments a valuable opportunity to build bridges in combating persistent organic
pollutants, which endanger public health and the environment,” said Klaus Toepfer,
UNEP Executive Director. “Regional cooperation - in health, agriculture, industry,
and environment - will be essential for bringing about the changes needed.”
Governments are negotiating an
international legally binding instrument to reduce and/or eliminate releases of POPs into
the environment. The next round of talks will take place 20-25 March in Bonn. Implementation issues, including the need for
capacity building and funding mechanisms, will be key areas.
This workshop is a followup to the
eight awareness raising workshops on POPs held by UNEP Chemicals in conjunction with the
Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety and POPs management workshops held in Moscow in
July 1998 and Hanoi in March 1999. They
respond to the mandate from the UNEP Governing Council to take immediate actions against
POPs in advance of the treaty.
The Southern African Development
Community has a primary role in helping to define regional priorities, facilitating
integration, and assisting in mobilizing resources to maximize regional impact of
projects. Its 14 member states are: Angola,
Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia,
Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The Lusaka workshop
is a consultative meeting sponsored jointly by UNEP and the United States under the
US/SADC Forum.
Note
to journalists: Additional data and documents are available via the Internet
(www.chem.unep.ch/pops). For followup or to
arrange interviews, please contact: James B. Willis, Director, UNEP Chemicals at tel: (+41
22) 917 8183; fax (+41 22) 797 3460; e-mail: chemicals@unep.ch;
or Linda Durkee, Policy and Communications Advisor, UNEP Chemicals, tel: (+41 22) 917 85
11; e-mail: ldurkee@unep.ch In Nairobi, please contact:
Tore J. Brevik, UNEP Spokesman, P.O. Box 30552; tel:
(254 2) 623292; fax: 623692; e-mail:
cpiinfo@unep.org
UNEP Information Note 2000/6
