The objectives of this workshop wer:
- To improve the understanding of the participants of the Basel Convention provisions relating to the illegal traffic of hazardous wastes, including PCBs, and other wastes, as well as of relevant guidance documents developed to prevent and combat such illegal traffic;
- To promote information exchange between competent authorities and enforcement entities of participating countries with respect to cases of illegal traffic;
- To increase awareness of existing networks, or stimulating the formation of new networks of authorities dealing with environmental matters, in particular the illegal traffic of hazardous wastes, including PCBs, and other wastes; and
- To share best practices on enforcement of the Basel Convention provisions.
Target audience
The workshop brought together the competent authorities of the Basel Convention and the other entities involved in the enforcement chain at the national level from Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, and Panama. Representatives from a number of international organizations and civil society organizations such as European Union Network for the Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Law (IMPEL), UTE - Empresa Eléctrica, Red Latinoamericana de MP Ambiental, and the Basel Convention Regional Centre in Argentina (BCRC-Argentina) also participated in the workshop.
Outcome
- Participants gained a better understanding of the obligations of the Basel and the Stockholm Conventions with regard to the illegal traffic of hazardous wastes and other wastes and environmentally sound management of PCBs and PCBs wastes;
- Participants enhanced their knowledge on the Basel Convention preventing and combating illegal traffic of hazardous and other wastes as well as wastes containing PCBs;
- Participants benefitted from lessons learned resulting from concrete case studies;
- Participants were informed of the challenges in prosecuting cases of illegal traffic of hazardous wastes, including PCBs, and other wastes under the Basel Convention - for instance as they relate to the definition and identification of hazardous wastes and other wastes, whom to prosecute, national coordination and international cooperation - and of possible ways to overcome these; and
- Participants were informed of the existence of enforcement and other networks and encouraged to join, or create, as appropriate, such networks.
- Participants also benefited from a field trip to the PCB-management facility (Lito S.A.S. Barranquilla).