The FAO Pesticide Risk Reduction Group intends to hold a Training of Trainers (ToT) workshop focussing on inventory, environmental risk assessment and safeguarding of obsolete pesticides. The workshop will take place in a country of the Middle East region from 28 November to 10 December 2011.

The training is designed to extend the roster of consultants that can support FAO in the field. Therefore, consultants and professionals from NGO or companies active in the Middle East countries and with relevant experience in project implementation of pesticide, chemical or hazardous waste management related projects will be consider first. Government officer may also apply provided they can demonstrate their availability for consultancies following the training and that their institution would release them for the duration of the consultancies.

For complete information and selection criteria, please download the call for application

Application must be sent by e-mail ( OPGroup @ fao.org ) by 17:00 (Rome time) on Friday 4 November 2011.

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The EU has decided to start a project - “Improving capacities to eliminate and prevent recurrence of obsolete pesticides as a model for tackling unused hazardous chemicals in the former Soviet Union” - to support the former Soviet Republics in cleaning up the old pesticide storage places. The budget of 7 million Euros is intended to eliminate implementation issues in the entire operation, which will cost at least 700 million. Three members of the European Parliament, Danish Dan Jorgensen, Dutch CDA politicians Ria Oomen and Esther de Lange, have promised to follow this project and the required actions and to further stimulate it.

This is the main outcome of the 11th Forum about HCH and Obsolete Pesticides, which was held by the the IHPA in Gabala, Azerbaijan this year from the 7th to the 9th of September.

During the opening session, the Azerbaijani Minister of Environment, Huseyn Bagirov, also indicated that his country wants to completely clean up the pesticides from the Soviet era in 8 to 10 years. Azerbaijan wants to take a leading position in the Caucasus and Central Asia with this clean-up action.

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Green rehabilitation opportunities for hazardous waste sites “The Example of Volgermeerpolder in the Netherlands”

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To mark the end of the Volgermeerpolder remediation and to focus on future Green Rehabilitation opportunities, we invite international experts and stakeholders to take part in the 2011 Amsterdam Natural Cap conference and submit their conference papers. The main themes of the conference are:

• Sustainable waste management
• Green rehabilitation
• Wetland ecology
• Innovative techniques in remediation projects
• Sustainable management of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)

We invite you to register for the conference or read more about the Volgermeer

07–09 September, 2011, Gabala, Republic of Azerbaijan

Status of obsolete stockpiles of pesticides in EECCA Countries: sharing experience of EU countries

The aim of 11th International HCH and Pesticide Forum is to present and discuss the problems connected with a huge amount of obsolete pesticides in the regions of Southern Caucasus and Central Asia region, Central European and EECCA Countries and many others around the Globe, their inventories, present amounts and elimination, which had started successfully during the previous 9th and continued during the 10th Fora. This Forum is undertaken under the framework of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) and other international agreements and directives.

Conference informationpdf

Tauw, Witteveen and Bos, the International HCH and Pesticides Association, Milieukontakt and Green Cross - Switzerland publish the interim reports of the Obsolete Pesticides Technical Study in the Kyrgyz Republic, the Republic of Tajikistan, and the Republic of Uzbekistan. The project is financed by the Canada Persistent Organic Pollutants Fund, through the World Bank. Local representatives from Milieukontakt in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan and from Green Cross in Uzbekistan coordinate the project from Bishkek, Dushanbe and Tashkent.

• Interim Report Kyrgyzstan
• Interim Report Tajikistan
• Interim Report Uzbekistan

Within the project Capacity Building on Obsolete and POPs Pesticides in Eastern European Caucasus and Central Asian Countries a Training of Trainers on Obsolete Pesticides Inventory, Environmental Risk Assessment and Safeguarding will be organised in Minsk, from 18-19 January 2010. Milieukontakt is a partner within this GEF FAO project, as well as IHPA, Green Cross Switzerland and Green Cross Belarus.

Eligible countries within the project are Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia and Romania. Persons from these countries interested to participate in the ToT are asked to read the full invitation and criteria below, and send a CV and write a one page letter explaining why you wish to participate in the training. In the letter you should indicate the likely extent of your availability for consultancies following the training.

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