Environment Quiz: International Environmental Conventions |27 Apr, 2021

The 1995 Basel Ban Amendment, a global waste dumping prohibition, has become an international law after Croatia ratified it on September 6, 2019.

• Croatia became the 97th country to ratify the ban, which was adopted by the parties to the Basel Convention in 1995, to protect human health and the environment against the adverse effects of hazardous wastes, according to Basel Action Network (BAN).
• BAN is a Unites States-based charity organisation and is one among the organisations and countries, which created the Basel Ban Amendment — hailed as a landmark agreement for global environmental justice.

• The Ban Amendment had been stalled for all these years due to uncertainty over how to interpret the Convention.
• It will become a new Article in the Convention and will enter into force in the 97 countries after 90 days.

Source: https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/waste/basel-ban-amendment-becomes-law-66651

The Ban Amendment, adopted in 1994, effectively bans, as of 1 January, 1998, all forms of hazardous waste exports from the 29 wealthiest countries of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to non-OECD countries.

• But the Ban Amendment had been stalled for all these years due to uncertainty over how to interpret the Convention.

• The Ban Amendment ensures that developing countries are not convenient dumping grounds for toxic factory waste, obsolete ships containing asbestos or old computers coming from affluent countries.

Source: https://www.downtoearth.org.in/indepth/basel-final-day-rich-nations-cant-dump-toxic-waste-on-poor-nations–34313

Convention on Biological Diversity Protocols is:

• The Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-sharing
• The Cartagena Protocol on Bio-safety

• The Nagoya – Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol on Liability and Redress to the Cartagena Protocol on Bio-safety

Source: https://www.cbd.int/convention/protocols/

The Delhi high court has extended the period of public consultation on the draft of the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification 2020, released by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, until August 11, 2020.

• The extension reiterates the established principles of public participation in environmental governance.

• The EIA Notification 2020, which will supersede 2006 notification, has come under severe criticism from environmentalists who have demanded its early withdrawal.
• Indeed, the draft notification’s regression and dilution of environmental criteria conflict with the established principles of international law.
• The public participation and modalities in EIA have been elaborated at the international level in the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Trans-boundary Context (“Espoo Convention”).

Source: https://thewire.in/environment/draft-environment-impact-assessment-notification-international-law

Concerned about the overexploitation of many vulnerable species as a result of unregulated international trade, governments adopted the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in 1973.

• The treaty entered into force in 1975 and now has 183 Parties. The Convention places a joint responsibility on producer and consumer Parties for managing wildlife trade sustainably and preventing illegal trade.

• CITES regulates international trade in over 36,000 species of plants and animals, including their products and derivatives, ensuring their survival in the wild with benefits for the livelihoods of local people and the global environment.
• The animals and plants protected by CITES are known as CITES-listed species because they are included on three lists approved by the Parties called CITES Appendices.
• CITES protects these species from being excessively traded and exploited illegally and unsustainably in the wild as their extinction would have irreversible ecological consequences and negative economic and social effects.
• The CITES permit system seeks to ensure that international trade in listed species is sustainable, legal and traceable.

Source: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/index.php

With new additions to the wildlife list put out by the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS), scientists say that the total number of migratory faunas from India comes to 457 species. Birds comprise 83% (380 species) of this figure.

• The Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) had for the first time compiled the list of migratory species of India under the CMS before the Conference of Parties (COP 13) held in Gujarat recently.
• It had put the number at 451. Six species were added later. They are the Asian elephant, great Indian bustard, Bengal florican, oceanic white-tip shark, urial and smooth hammerhead shark.
• “We had compiled a list of the 451 species of migratory animals found in India. With the addition of new species to the CMS Appendices, the number is now 457,” said Kailash Chandra, ZSI director.

• Globally, more than 650 species are listed under the CMS appendices and India, with over 450 species, plays a very important role in their conservation.

Source: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/india-is-host-to-457-migratory-fauna-shows-latest-cms-list/article30958132.ece

The Union cabinet approved on February 2018, a proposal for ratification of the Minamata Convention, a global treaty to protect human health and the environment from adverse effects of mercury.

• After joining the Convention, it will now be easier for India to get technological or financial assistance to address issues related to mercury.

• “The approval entails ratification of the Minamata Convention on mercury along with flexibility for continued use of mercury-based products and processes involving mercury compound up to 2025,” an official statement said.
• The government stressed that the convention will “urge enterprises to move to mercury-free alternatives in products and non-mercury technologies in manufacturing processes” and will “drive research and development, and promote innovation”.
• “The convention will be implemented in the context of sustainable development with the objective to protect human health and environment from the anthropogenic emissions and releases of mercury and mercury compounds,” the statement added.
• Till now, the convention has 88 ratifications and 144 signatories including India, which signed it on 30 September 2014. India had actively participated in the negotiating process, making significant contributions in finalizing the treaty text but had not ratified it till now.
• India’s neighbors – Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan – are also signatories to the convention. But only Sri Lanka has ratified it.

• In October 2013, at a conference in Kumamoto (Japan), the convention was formally adopted. The major highlights of the convention include a ban on new mercury mines, the phase-out of existing ones, the phase-out and phase-down of mercury use in a number of products and processes.
• It also addresses interim storage of mercury and its disposal once it becomes waste, and sites contaminated by mercury as well as health issues.
• Mercury is considered by experts to be one of the most toxic metals known.
• Once released into the environment, mercury bio-accumulates and bio-magnifies in the food chain, and easily enters the human body and impacts the nervous system.
• The treaty aims at protecting human health and the environment from its adverse effects.

Source: https://www.livemint.com/Union-cabinet-approves-ratification-of-Minamata-Convention.html

Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat 1971.

Source: https://biodiversitya-z.org/content/convention-on-wetlands-of-international-importance-especially-as-waterfowl-habitat-ramsar-convention

The Earth Summit resulted in the following documents:

• Rio Declaration on Environment and Development
• Agenda 21
• Forest Principles

Source: Shankar page no: 325

IUCN was founded in October 1948 as the International Union for the Protection of Nature (or IUPN) following an international conference in Fontainebleau, France.

The organization changed its name to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources in 1956 with the acronym IUCN (or UICN) with its headquarters in Gland, Switzerland.

Priority Areas of IUCN:

• Biodiversity

• Climate change
• Sustainable energy
• Human well-being
• Green economy

Source: Shankar page no: 335