Central America and the Caribbean Regional Resources

Workshops on Indicators and Peer Review held in Central America
On 18-20 September 2007, participants from Guatemala, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Honduras, and El Salvador met with facilitators from INECE and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to explore how performance measurement indicators could help improve the efficiency and effectiveness of environmental compliance and enforcement. Through a series of exercises on identification and design, consensus emerged on appropriate terminology for the types of indicators. At the conclusion of the workshop, participants agreed to next steps, including country-level workplans for the development of indicators programs.

INECE created a web page for the workshop documents and followup. See also CCAD realiza Taller de Indicadores de Cumplimiento Ambiental y Evaluación de Desempeño.

Project Finalizes National Hazardous Waste Inventories and Action Plans in Central America
Excerpted from an article by Andreas Arlt, Program Officer, SBC, Andreas.Arlt@unep.ch

The Secretariat of the Basel Convention (SBC) is about to finalize one of its largest regional projects on the preparation of national inventories and national action plans for the environmentally sound management (ESM) of PCBs and PCB containing equipment in Central America with a total budget of US$ 650,000.

All Central American countries (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama) participated in the project aimed at laying the groundwork for regional disposal activities for PCBs in Central America. The project is one of a series of projects successfully implemented by UNEP/Division of Technology, Industry and Economics, UNEP’s Chemicals Branch and the SBC to support Parties in the implementation of the Basel and Stockholm Conventions in a coordinated manner at the national and regional levels. At the fourth and final workshop, which took place from 12 to 14 July 2006 in San Salvador, El Salvador, all participating countries presented their national inventories and national actions plans, as related to the ESM of PCBs and PCB containing equipment, as well as the assessment of hitherto related national legislation in Central American countries with regard to chemicals and waste management, as linked to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions.

For more information, visit INECE Newsletter 13 or contact Mr. Andreas Arlt, Program Officer, Secretariat of the Basel Convention.