Poisons on Paradise : lessons from Fiji

Abstract

As part of the Pacific Concerns Resource Centre (PCRC) Awareness Campaign Initiative. PCRC is pleased to showcase Fiji as a case study for other Pacific island countries to learn from. Fiji ratified to the Stockholm Convention in June 2001, being the second country in the world to do so. The Convention is a global effort to eliminate and in some cases manage a particular class of toxic chemicals known as a Persistent Organic Pollutants or POPs. Fiji began the POPs Projet in 2003, being facilitated by the Department of Environment, with funding from United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Global Environment Facility (GEF) With this project the country has been able to prepare a Motor Vehicle Emmissions Strategy, a National Solid Waste Management Strategy and more specific to the Convention, a bseline awareness survey on the level of Chemical/POPs Awareness amongst people, awareness work, medical incinerator evaluation, the National chemical inventories for different sectors, the National Chemical Management Infrastructure and the National Implementation Plan. This documentary goes to show how the country was able to carry the requirements of the Convention and simultaneously provide for capacity building within Fiji