A regional meeting will take place at the Outrigger on the Lagoon for ozone and customs officers in the region on Monday, May 23rd.
The meeting is divided into three sessions:
- Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS) environment officers meet from May 23 to 25
- Green Customs Workshop from May 23 to 25
- Joint meeting of ODS environment officers and customs officers from May 26 to 27.
This regional meet will be officially opened by the Minister for Local Government, Urban Development, Housing and Environment, Colonel Samuela Saumatua.
Other international and regional environmental organisation representatives will deliver addresses as well.
The meeting is to enable ODS environment and customs officers from developing countries to learn and share experiences on the phase-out of ODS and other multilateral agreements at the border.
The meeting will also focus on the following:
· Implementation of the HCFC Phase- out Management Plan (HPMP), including the establishment and enforcement of HCFC licensing and import and export quota systems
· Strengthen relationships, including networking between environment and customs officers in terms of border control and maximising benefits our countries can derive from trade while at the same time limiting risks and threats such practices can pose to Fiji and the Pacific, such as uncontrolled and illegal trade or criminal activities
· Generate awareness among other government agencies and key stakeholders on the ozone issues, phase-out policy of ODS and other Multilateral Environment Agreements (MEAs).
The Green Customs Initiative is where customs officers and border protection officers ensure any goods entering or leaving their country comply with national laws.
If their country is a party to one or more Multilateral Environmental Agreements, then these agreements are likely to be included in the national laws and regulations.
Hence, the development of Green Customs Initiative is a series of collaborative activities carried out by its partner organizations and aimed at raising awareness of customs and border control officers on several trade- related MEAs.
The area of focus are as follows:
· Basel convention on the control of trans-boundary movements of hazardous wastes and their disposal;
· Cartagena protocol on bio-safety;
· Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITIES);
· Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer;
· Rotterdam Convention on the prior informed consent procedure for certain hazardous chemicals and pesticides in International Trade; and
· Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants
This is the third meet for the Pacific Island countries where about 55 to 60 delegates are expected for the three meetings.
Participation will include:
· Developing member countries: Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu;
· Developed members countries, Australia and New Zealand;
· International and regional agencies: Ozone Secretariat, Multilateral Fund Secretariat, South Pacific Regional Environment Programme, World Bank, United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Industrial Development Organization, Oceania Customs Organization Secretariat, and Multilateral Environment Agreement (MEA) Secretariats.
Fiji is not an official delegate of the PICs network but is a member of the South East Asian Pacific Network (SEAP).
Fiji’s role is to provide general facilitation and resource personnel to the PICs Network in order to share its experiences as it is more advanced in terms of implementing the Montreal Protocol, and ODS Laws for the last ten years.
The Fiji Customs and Revenue Authority will participate in workshops as well as provide the necessary resource personnel.
This meeting is co-organised by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP’s ) Compliance Assistance Programme (CAP) team of Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP) in Bangkok, South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) with Ministry of Local Government, Urban Development, Housing and Environment- Government of Fiji.
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