Meeting on International Initiatives in the Areas of Capacity Building, Awareness Raising and Enforcement of Transboundary Shipments of Waste

Transcription

1 Meeting on International Initiatives in the Areas of Capacity Building, Awareness Raising and Enforcement of Transboundary Shipments of Waste The Hague, the Netherlands 30 November 1 December 2009 Corona Hotel, The Hague Meeting Report 1/12

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS INTRODUCTION PRESENTATIONS & DISCUSSIONS CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS ANNEXES I. PARTICIPANTS LIST II. PROGRAMME 2/12

3 Abbreviations BAN CCP ESM GCI IMPEL IMPEL TFS INECE MPPI NGO PACE RILO WE SBC SESN UNEP DTIE UNODC USEPA WCO Basel Action Network Container Control Programme Environmentally nmentally Sound Management Green Customs Initiative European Network for the Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Law Transfrontier Shipments of Waste cluster under IMPEL International Network for Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Mobile Phone Partnership Initiative Non Governmental Organization Partnership on Computing Equipment Regional Intelligence and Liaison Office Western Europe Secretariat of the Basel Convention Seaport Environmental Security Network United Nation Environment Programme, Division of Technology, Industry and Economics United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime United States Environmental Protection Agency World Customs Organiz O rganization ation 3/12

4 1. 1. INTRODUCTION The attention for illegal movements of hazardous waste has increased over the last years and therefore also the recognition and the need to act against these illegal activities. A variety of organisations and institutions have taken up this challenge and are involved in projects or initiatives that aim at preventing and combating these illegal movements of waste, by creating awareness, developing capacity and fostering enforcement collaboration. This is a positive development as this global environmental problem can only be tackled by an international and multidisciplinary approach, targeting groups such as environmental inspectorates, police, customs and the judiciary. Examples of these international projects are the INECE Seaport Environmental Security Network, IMPEL-TFS Enforcement Actions Project, E-wastes in Africa Project from the Basel Convention Secretariat, the UNODC Container Control Programme, Interpol E-waste Project and Operation Demeter by the WCO. To avoid overlap and to strengthen each other s activities, the need for co-operation and coordination has emerged. In order to explore the possibilities to improve the coordination and synergy between the different activities, the Inspectorate of the Netherlands Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment (Programme for International Enforcement Cooperation) organised a meeting for relevant stakeholders active in the field of international enforcement of transboundary movements of waste on the 30 th November and 1 st of November 2009 in the Hague, The Netherlands. MEETING AIMS Due to the increasing amount of efforts in the areas of awareness raising, capacity building and operational enforcement cooperation of transboundary shipments of waste, the aim of this meeting was first of all to get an overview of relevant projects, activities and key players. Secondly, the meeting aimed to identify and possibly agree a joint approach and so increase the efficiency, effectiveness and impact of the different projects. MEETING PARTICIPANTS In total 19 persons attended the meeting, representing 11 organisations, institutes, international networks and NGO s. 4/12

5 2. 2. PRESENTATIONS & DISCUSSIONS Mr. Gerard Wolters, Inspector-General for International Enforcement Cooperation of the VROM-Inspectorate from The Netherlands, opened the meeting and welcomed the participants. He referred to two recent visits he paid to China and Ghana, where he was informed about the ongoing increase of waste exports to China and he witnessed the dangerous and unprotected treatment of E-waste in Ghana. The seriousness and the consequences of illegal waste trafficking and treatment require a co-ordinated and concerted approach in order to effectively combat this type of environmental crime. He underlined that this first gathering of stakeholders was an informal meeting. After the introduction round Ms. Nancy Isarin presented the background and aim of the meeting. During the first session several presentations were given by the following organisations: Mr. Dadan Wardhana Hasanuddin from the Secretariat of the Basel Convention informed the group about the various projects of the SBC, such as the capacity building programme in Côte d Ivoire and in Trinidad and Tobago, and the promotion of ESM of E-waste in Africa and the Asia Pacific. Most of the SBC projects include components on awareness raising, capacity building and enforcement. On enforcement and illegal waste trafficking, the Conference of the Parties has granted specific competences to two bodies under the Convention: 1. the Basel Convention Implementation and Compliance Committee, which reviews Parties implementation and compliance with their obligations under the Convention, including with regards to illegal traffic; 2. the Basel Convention Open Ended Working Group, which provides guidance to the Secretariat on its enforcement activities. A request was made to the group to forward any training material for enforcing transboundary movements of hazardous waste for the online library of the SBC. Ms. Nancy Isarin, secretariat of the IMPEL-TFS network, gave a presentation about the IMPEL- TFS network. The TFS cluster aims to promote compliance with international and European waste shipment rules, perform joint enforcement projects and facilitate the exchange of information, knowledge and experience. 5/12

6 Its activities focus on operational enforcement projects, developing tools to support the inspectors, performing threat assessments, promoting inter-agency collaboration and setting up contacts with the countries that receive the waste. Thirdly Ms. Danielle Grabiel introduced the International Network for Environmental Compliance and Enforcement (INECE). INECE goals are to set up (regional) networks for cooperation, strengthen capacity and raise awareness for environmental compliance and enforcement. One of its projects is the Seaport Environmental Security Network (SESN). This network is a coalition of enforcement professionals, working together to strengthen the capacity of both developed and developing countries to address illegal hazardous waste shipments through ports and prevent dumping in the developing world. It also facilitates operational enforcement collaboration between the involved ports. An inspection month is planned for the first half of Danielle will circulate the scoping document for this enforcement activity and the participants list of the SESN. Mr. Ezra Clark introduced the Green Customs Initiative (GCI) from UNEP DTIE. The GCI is initially set up to support customs officers to provide them with the knowledge, skills and access to information that they need to comply with multilateral environmental agreements in their daily work. This is mainly done by regional support, networking, workshops and training. Furthermore various materials and tools are developed. One of the strengths of the GCI is to deliver a coordinated training through a joint partnership involving multiple organisations. Among the partners of the GCI are the secretariats from the Multilateral Environmental Agreements, Interpol and the WCO. The idea was raised to organise specific trainings on waste back to back with GCI meetings. The last presentation before the break was give by Mr. Louis Morreau of the Regional Intelligence Liaison Office Western Europe (RILO WE) of the Worlds Customs Organization (WCO). He presented the Operation Demeter, a joint operation to combat the illegal movements of waste between Europe, Africa and Asia-Pacific which ran from March till May The operation aimed at raising awareness amongst the customs officers for the problems with illegal movements of (hazardous) waste, to quantify and qualify the scale and impact of the illegal waste trade, to deliver results in terms of detection, interception and seizures of waste and to develop risk indicators to target the illegal waste trade. The operation resulted in a high number of seizures of illegally shipped waste and the exchange of information between Customs officers by using the tool CENCOMM. 6/12

7 It is recommended that this type of operations should continue in the future, both at regional and international level and that cooperation with the environmental authorities should be intensified. After the break the presentations continued. Ms. Nicole Maric from the UNODC presented the Container Control Programme (CCP). The CCP is set up to establish inter-agency units for the selection and control of container transports and to promote an improved cooperation between all port stakeholders. The tasks of these units are to identify high-risk containers and to organise awareness raising activities that facilitate legal trade. The current focus is on drugs, weapons and human trafficking, but this can be expanded to environmental crimes as well. For the CCP different tools have been developed, such as the communication tool ContainerComm, a training to use high tech equipment, a guide for container control and a technical needs assessment handbook for ports. The CCP also uses a private system called C-Hawk Container Intelligence Programme to search and track containers. It is suggested to add environmental expertise to the unit in the port of Tema, Ghana and to combine port controls on waste shipments with the IMPEL-TFS and INECE SESN enforcement actions. Nicole will check if the handbook for container control and the technical needs assessment for ports can be distributed to the participants of this meeting. She also was interested in routes used for illegal trafficking containers with waste and asked the participants to forward any information on this. Mr. Roel Willekens of the Dutch Police informed the participants about a recent seminar for European Police Services and their role in the area of combating environmental crime. The main outcomes of this seminar are to establish a European Network of Police Services at a strategic level (EnviPol), to approach the European Commission to raise the issue of environmental crime on the political agenda and to organise a follow-up meeting in The European Commission, DG Environment representative, Mr. George Kiayias presented the recent developments at the Commission side in relation to the Waste Shipment Regulation 2013/2006. Discussions on the classification of waste and mixtures of waste and the document accompanying the transport of non-hazardous waste (the so called green listed waste ) are ongoing. DG Environment has conducted studies, for example on the standards of waste treatment in non-oecd countries, on minimum criteria for waste shipment inspections and on the feasibility of the establishment of a European Waste Implementation Agency. 7/12

8 Furthermore, a helpdesk will be set up in 2010 as a electronic platform for the exchange information and discuss question between the national authorities. The support to the IMPEL- TFS Enforcement Actions Project will be continued, as well as the awareness raising events on the implementation of European waste law. DG Taxud will also launch two studies on the area of transboundary movements of waste. One on the possible assignment of customs harmonised goods codes to waste shipments codes. A second study will explore the problems of waste shipments from Europe to Asian countries and the role of customs to improve the compliance with the waste shipment regulation. The final presentation was by Mr. Jim Puckett of the Basel Action Network (BAN). He presented the missions of the BAN and campaigns, such as the Electronic Stewardship, which includes standards for the treatment of e-waste. In the area of awareness raising, BAN writes briefing papers, articles, press releases and fact sheets and they give presentations at international conferences. They also have produced two DVD s, which highlight the problems of environmentally unsound treatment of e-waste in Asia and Africa. BAN is also involved in discussions at the political level, for example on the Mobile Phone Partnership Initiative and the PACE project. Finally it was showed that BAN also traces containers with (might) transport waste illegally and inform the authorities in the receiving countries about these shipments. Several illegal exports of e-waste from the US to Hong Kong have been detected using this approach. After the presentations, the floor was open for informal discussions and the exchange of ideas for the future. Despite of all the initiatives so far, there are still some gaps existing: - The lack of awareness raising at the political level; - Many countries still do not have national law to implement the provisions of the Basel Convention; - Definition problems for the inspectors in terms of classifying waste and the lack of guidelines; - Coordination of all the different activities and projects at an international level; - A compendium of existing tools and central library with relevant documents and reference materials. 8/12

9 Other issues that were discussed are the repatriation of illegal waste shipments and why this rarely happens. It turns out that if illegally imported waste is detected, customs normally orders the shipping agent or shipping line to take the waste elsewhere. This happens without informing the competent authorities of dispatch and the waste disappears. During training, the procedures for returning waste could be more emphasised. Contacts between individual Member States of the European Union and some non-oced countries made clear that the note-verbale send out by the European Commission regarding the procedures for receiving green listed (non-hazardous) waste are not dealt with by the correct authorities. Responses on the note-verbale therefore are either not given or are based on an economic view and not on an environmental view. The European Commission will investigate this issue further internally. In terms of training and e-learning, different organisations are developing training materials. IMPEL-TFS is developing a training DVD on the enforcement of waste shipments. The DVD will be presented in June The WHO also has a guideline on transboundary shipping of expired medicines. The SBC is developing tools, including e-learning tools, on enforcement and US EPA has an e-learning module on inter-agency collaboration. Questioned was also how to measure the results and effects of al the different workshops and trainings that are organised. The GCI has tackled this issue by using the train-the-trainer approach and incorporating the GCI in national customs training curricula. The GCI requires a follow up after their training, by asking for a report on national training activities. Other ideas that came up were to give input on each other s training materials and to gather and exchange relevant information to support enforcement authorities. This information should be available at a central location. It was suggested to follow a chain approach when monitoring and controlling the transboundary movements of waste. This chain approach means involving all steps of the waste chain from point of origin, followed by transport to the final treatment. It also implies to involve all authorities that have an enforcement role in this transboundary waste chain. The link with industry and the role of shipping lines and the questions of how to make them (partly) liable for illegal trafficking waste should be discussed and developed further in the near future. 9/12

10 3. 3. CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS At the end of the meeting the following conclusions and recommendations were agreed upon: 1. The group agreed that there should be more synergy between and a joint approach by the relevant stakeholders in the areas of awareness raising, capacity building and operational enforcement collaboration within transboundary movements of waste; 2. In order to improve the coordination, a kind of global steering committee, hub or platform should be formed by key organisations. This group would have to meet on a regular basis and keep each other updated and informed about the ongoing and future projects and activities; 3. A compendium of existing tools or central information point should be set up, which compiles information on projects, training, guidelines, contact points, materials and data for meetings and training to be able to organise back-to-back meetings and align other activities; 4. The awareness raising and capacity building should also focus on other target groups. Mentioned were the public prosecutors and industry (e.g. by sensitising the shipping lines); 5. Individual countries should be more encouraged and supported to implement the Basel Convention into their national law systems; 6. When possible and relevant, a joint media strategy should be followed (e.g. by publishing a joint press release after an activity or enforcement action); 7. Feedback of this meeting will be given during the Basel Convention Open Ended Working Group meeting in May 2010; 8. UNODC, IMPEL-TFS and INECE have agreed to organise a joint enforcement operation during spring 2010; 9. The follow up of this meeting includes: a report that will be shared internally; the organisation of a next meeting; a proposal for the development of a website as central point of information. For the next meeting more organisations should be invited such as Interpol, IMO/MARPOL, WHO, Green Ports Initiative, UNDAC, UN DELC, Greenpeace, the WWF, The secretariat of the Barcelona Convention and the OECD. 10/12

11 Annex I Participants list Mr / Ms Name Surname organization country 1 Ms Danielle Grabiel dgrabiel@inece.org INECE United States 2 Mr Henk Ruessink henk.ruessink@minvrom.nl INECE / VROM Netherlands 3 Mr Bob Heiss Heiss.Robert@epamail.epa.gov USEPA United States 4 Ms Gabriele Hirth gabriele.hirth@hmulv.hessen.de IMPEL TFS Germany 5 Ms. Nancy Isarin nancy.isarin@ambiendura.com AmbienDura unipessoal lda. IMPEL-TFS Secretariat 6 Ms Jenny Houten, van jenny.vanhouten@minvrom.nl Ministry of VROM Netherlands 7 Mr Carl Huijbregts carl.huijbregts@minvrom.nl IMPEL TFS EAII Netherlands 8 Mr Gerard Wolters gerard.wolters@minvrom.nl Ministry of VROM Netherlands 9 Mr Albert Klingenberg albert.klingenberg@minvrom.nl Ministry of VROM Netherlands 10 Ms Marina de Gier marina.degier@minvrom.nl Ministry of VROM Netherlands 11 Ms Nicole Maric nicole.maric@unodc.org UNODC/Container Control Programme Switzerland 12 Mr Andreas Hermann a.hermann@oeko.de Öko-Institut Germany 13 Mr Stefan Seum s.seum@oeko.de Öko-Institut Germany 14 Mr Roel Willekens Roel.Willekens@Brabant-Noord.Politie.nl Police Netherlands 15 Mr Dadan Wardhana Dadan.WARDHANA@unep.org Secretariat of the Basel Convention Switzerland 16 Mr Ezra Clark ezra.clark@unep.fr Green Customs France 17 Mr Jim Puckett apex@seanet.com Basel Network Action United States 18 Mr Louis Moreau louis.moreau@rilo-we.org WCO/RILO WE Germany 19 Mr George Kiayias george.kiayias@ec.europa.eu European Commission/DG Belgium 11/12

12 Annex II Programme MONDAY, 30 November Registration participants ipants Welcomes lunch Opening by Mr. Gerard Wolters Introduction to the meeting by Nancy Isarin Presentations by some of the organizations and their projects Secretariat of the Basel Convention by Mr.. D. Wardhana H.S. IMPEL TFS by Ms. Nancy Isarin INECE by Ms. Danielle Grabiel Green Customs by Mr. Ezra Clark WCO Operation Demeter by Mr. Louis Moreau Coffee / Tea break Continuation of the presentations UNODC by Ms. Nicole Maric European Commission by Mr. George Kiayias Basel Action Network by Mr. Jim Puckett Discussion Dinner at restaurant Dudok (gather at the hotel lobby) TUESDAY, 1 December Opening Overview of the projects (based on presentations and discussions from Day 1) Discussion on areas of possible collaboration / coordination Coffee / Tea Break Conclusions and Closing 12/12