BASEL CONVENTION. Department of Environment and Natural Resources Undersecretary Juan Miguel Cuna answers queries from reporters during the three-day 3rd Philippine Environment Summit in Cagayan de Oro City on Wednesday, Feb. 26. The official says DENR is still studying the impact of ratifying the Basel Ban Amendment and how would this affect the sector engaged in recycling of wastes. (Photo by Jigger J. Jerusalem)
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY -- The Philippines is on its way to ratifying a provision in an international treaty that would prohibit the shipment of garbage from developed countries to poorer nations, an official of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said Wednesday.
Juan Miguel Cuna, DENR Undersecretary for policy, planning and international affairs, said the agency is still studying the impact of ratifying the Basel Ban Amendment and how would this affect the sector engaged in recycling of wastes.
“We are moving towards ratifying the Basel Ban Amendment. I have to double-check, but I think that’s our direction,” Cuna told reporters during a press conference on the three-day 3rd Philippine Environmental Summit held at the Grand Caprice Restaurant here Wednesday.
One of the concerns that have been part of the discussion by the DENR’s Environmental Management Bureau is the effect of the amendment to the entities that are involved in the processing of wastes products.
“It took us some time because we have a recycling industry,” he said.
The amendment, once enforced by countries signatories to the Basel Convention, will ensure that developing nations like the Philippines do not become convenient dumping sites for trash, even those intended for recycling.
According to the United Nations Environment Programme, the Basel Convention of transboundary movements of hazardous wastes and their disposal was adopted on March 22, 1989, in response to a public outcry following the discovery that Africa and other developing countries have become a dumping ground of toxic wastes imported from abroad.
Article 9 of the Basel Convention states that “in case of a transboundary movement of hazardous wastes or other wastes deemed to be illegal traffic as the result of conduct on the part of the exporter or generator, the State of export shall ensure that the wastes in question are taken back by the exporter or the generator or, if necessary, by itself into the State of export.”
But Cuna said the DENR could not just “come up with a policy that will affect an entire sector,” adding the agency must find out how many people are employed in this sector and who many will be affected once the amendment is ratified.
Environmental groups such as the EcoWaste Coalition and Greenpeace Philippines have been advocating for the ratification of the Basel Ban Amendment.
The amendment prohibits the export of hazardous wastes for all reasons, including recycling, from rich countries belonging to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), European Union (EU) and Liechtenstein to developing countries like the Philippines.
“Ratifying the Basel Ban Amendment and further prohibiting the export of all wastes to the Philippines will be our best legal protection against waste trafficking," said Aileen Lucero, EcoWaste Coalition national coordinator, in a recent statement.
For its part, Greenpeace has been pushing for the ratification of the amendment so the country can ban all shipments of hazardous waste from developed to developing countries, even for recycling purposes.
The ratification is also seen to promote clean production, stop toxic technologies and prevent governments and companies from circumventing the recycling loophole in the Basel Convention, Greenpeace added. (PNA)
