Third meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Minamata Convention on Mercury (COP-3)

Objectives:

• Inform participants on the intersessional process (IP) for SAICM and the sound management of chemicals and waste beyond 2020 and the journey towards the fifth session of the International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM5)
   
• Moderate a discussion on strengthening coordination and engagement for the sound management of chemicals and waste beyond 2020 in response to the SAICM independent evaluation and in line with the 2030 Agenda.

This event will be the official global launch of new WHO Guidance on Strategic Planning for Implementation of the Health-related Articles of the Minamata Convention, and will share experience from its early use in countries. The objective is to foster collaboration between the health and other sectors, provide a forum for the health sector to showcase their work, as well as explain the opportunities and challenges encountered.

This event aims to inform the audience about the high ambition alliance on chemicals and waste. It will also discuss the opportunities of a global framework for addressing challenges in the sound management of chemicals and waste beyond 2020, including its relationship with the chemicals and waste related conventions.

The Government of Sweden and Uruguay will host the event and present the ideas behind creating the high ambition alliance on chemicals and waste. What it is envisioned to contribute with? Who should and can take part?

The Minamata convention is regulating the formal trade and use of mercury. But little information is available on the formal and especially informal pathways of mercury and how these drive the artisanal gold economies. From its original source to the gold mining sites at the other end of the world, trade routes of illicit mercury remain largely elusive to this day.

An insight into the supply routes and value chain of the mercury market is needed to support the reduction of mercury in artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM). Where does the mercury originate from? How was it transported and by whom? Through which channels, formal or informal? Who benefits most from this trade? Which systems are constraining mercury free artisanal gold?

To answer these questions, IUCN NL initiated a study on the political ecology of the gold-mercury link to identify illicit mercury flows, trade hubs and key players in multiple countries, namely Guyana & Suriname, Bolivia, Philippines, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya and Burkina Faso.

The objectives of this global study are: 1) to improve the understanding of mercury flows, trade hubs and key players, 2) to enhance the governance of mercury in the ASGM sectors of the target countries, 3) to enhance recognition of the scale and impact of the informal mercury trade, and 4) to showcase that this is a global problem.

After an intensive investigation phase by local teams existing of partner NGOs coached by globally recognized expert consultants, IUCN NL in collaboration with all partners and in consultation with UNEP is presenting initial results. We aim to strengthen the Minamata convention with information that is not available through official channels and presents an addition to the knowledge collected in UNEP’s global mercury assessment. We want to inform national governments about formal and informal mercury trade pathways and shed light onto the key players driving the trade. We hope to support National Action Plans with the insight gained into the illicit mercury trade to enhance the governance of mercury in the ASGM sector. Furthermore, we aim to raise awareness in the global community about the influence and impact of the illicit mercury trade on ASGM.

The Special Programme, also known as the Chemicals and Waste Management Programme, provides support to developing countries and countries with economies in transition to enhance their sustainable institutional capacity to develop, adopt, monitor and enforce policy, legislation and regulation for effective frameworks for the implementation of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions, the Minamata Convention and SAICM.

Localisation of mercury waste treatment

It´s not rocket science!

Speaker: Reinhard Schmidt, CEO econ industries

Countries that do not have sufficient infrastructure to treat their own mercury containing wastes and elemental mercury stockpiles only have two fundamentally different options: Exporting of wastes or building up local treatment facilities. Hazardous waste export requires a significant amount of bureaucracy, packaging and transport. Export also involves considerable time requirements, expenses and emissions. Localisation of mercury waste treatment opens the door for an increase of local waste treatment know how with qualified jobs. Localisation also maximises transparency in mercury waste handling. On a long term basis localisation of waste treatment is the more economic solution. Since 16 years econ industries is supplier for larger and smaller solutions for the treatment of hazardous wastes. The company has installed hazardous waste treatment facilities in over 15 countries worldwide. The lecture should encourage local stakeholders to build and operate own mercury waste treatment facilities, based on equipment which is affordable and `Made in Germany´.

Presenters of “Indigenous Voices from the Southeastern Peruvian Amazon: Mercury-related issues and their Impact on their Health and Communities” will share their experiences as leaders, members, as well as advisors to indigenous communities in Peru, with a focus on the country’s Southeastern Amazon, the region of Madre de Dios. Mercury contamination from small-scale and artisanal mining (ASGM) occurs throughout the country, often impacting indigenous populations hardest because of a diet high in river fish. For the tribes living in voluntary isolation (Pueblos Indígenas en Situación de Aislamiento y Contacto Inicial (PIACI)), there is even greater concern about the health effects of mercury on already-vulnerable populations. The Indigenous Federation of the Madre de Dios River and its Tributaries (La Federación Nativa del Río Madre de Dios y Afluentes (FENAMAD)) along with The Inter-Ethnic Association for Development in the Peruvian Rainforest (Asociación Interétnica de Desarrollo de la Selva Peruana (AIDESEP), will share their perspectives, the challenges they face, and their hopes for implementing strategic goals to alleviate the toxic body-burdens in their communities.

The event will introduce the devastating and growing problem of illegal mining and mercury use in the Amazon biome; presenting its major impacts upon local and indigenous societies, the environmental end economic consequences, and the regional coordinated actions that need to be addressed not only from a national perspective, but from an international collaborative effort between Amazon countries and others involved in gold markets.

It will also help to introduce the regional multi-stakeholder Mercury Free Amazon Alliance and its strategy that have been developed to tackle the problem of illegal gold mining from a comprehensive and integral perspective that comprises environmental, social, health, economic and global markets considerations.

Finally, the Amazon regional analysis on mercury impacts will be launched during the event, presenting some of the most important results. 

The event aims to build on the technical assistance and legislative frameworks adopted to date in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) regions to promote the effective enforcement of the commitments taken by ACP countries as Parties to chemicals and waste conventions including the Minamata, BRS and Bamako conventions. This will be ensured through improved compliance with and enforcement of key policies and legislations in countries; specific protocols and mechanisms that facilitate the sharing of information and experiences; and the provision of sound environmental data and tools to policy makers to close the gap between science and policy experienced at the national level.