Work in the Caribbean
- Harmonisation of pesticide legislation
In the Caribbean, it was agreed during the inception phase to prioritize updating of national legislations to meet the requirements of target MEAs, regional harmonization of pesticide legislation, regulation and registration, including adopting of a common pesticide labelling system; training on risk evaluation and remediation of contaminated sites. In 2015, a Regional Technical Working Group on Pesticide Evaluation for Registration, involving pesticide registrars and observers from the Caribbean Agricultural Health and Food Safety Agency (CAHFSA), and other regional institutions as well as CARICOM Secretariat, was established, with the aim of evaluating applications for the registration of pesticides products.
- Chemical Waste Management
The identification of the legacy obsolete pesticides stocks in eleven countries and safeguarding and centralized those in Jamaica, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago was achieved during MEAs1. During 2016 FAO MEAs will collaborate with a newly approved GEF project continuing from MEAS I by safeguarding the stocks in the remaining countries and disposing of all 319 tonnes. The MEAs project has supported the validation of the national inventories of obsolete pesticides, the safeguarding and disposal of all the stocks is expected to be completed by the end of 2016. The FAO component of MEAs2 will also complete data, identify and assess options for establishing a sustainable container management scheme and convene a regional stakeholder meeting.
The MEAs II project will also support the countries to develop strategies for sustainably funding the environmentally sound management of stocks of unwanted, illegal, confiscated and obsolete pesticides which continue to arise on a routine basis. FAO MEAs 2 will also collaborate with the UNIDO-GEF-BCRC project on identification and disposal of other Persistent Organic Pollutants in the region and dispose of 100 tonnes of waste contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in the most efficient manner.