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MEA-REN Project
The project aims at initiating an integrated regional cooperation between countries in North East, South and South East Asia that will enable the participating countries to gain better control over their import and export of chemicals (ODS, POPs, chemical waste) by promoting further regional co-operation for the control of trans-boundary movement of those chemicals.
The project will establish improved communication channels for informal information exchange and develop common tools for data management and collaboration, through extending the existing ODS enforcement networks by integrating control of trans-boundary movements on chemicals covered by the Montreal Protocol, and the Rotterdam, Stockholm and Basel Conventions. |
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Region
Environmental crime is one of the most profitable and fastest growing new areas of international criminal activity. Growing international environmental concerns have led to the proliferation of multilateral conventions and national laws and regulations to control pollutants that are health or environmental hazards, to prevent wanton exploitation of scarce natural resources, and to protect endangered plant and animal species. Criminal organizations around the world most notably in Italy, Russia, China, and Japan have taken advantage of the significantly greater costs for waste disposal, as well as the much-increased value of rare or precious natural resource commodities that are the subject of tight trade and sale restrictions, to earn substantial illicit income from circumventing environmental laws and regulations.
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The tremendous costs for legally disposing of pollutants and dangerous chemicals have created new illicit business opportunities for criminal organizations, who earn $10-12 billion per year for dumping trash and hazardous waste materials. Organized crime groups are taking increasing advantage of the multibillion-dollar legal trade in recyclable materials, such as scrap metals, to illegally export or dump toxic wastes. Most of these wastes are shipped in "trash-for-cash" schemes to countries in Eastern and Central Europe, Asia, and Africa where disposal costs and enforcement of environmental regulations are lower. The lack of specific legislation governing such crimes in many countries and poor enforcement or limited legal penalties in many others (often only fines that are insignificant in comparison to the millions in profits that can be made from this activity) reduce the risks for international crime groups involved in dumping hazardous wastes.
Illegal trade in all categories of ODS will clearly remain a concern over the next 10 years at least, in particular for CFCs in developing countries and possibly for Hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) and halons in developed nations. When developed countries phased out CFC by 1996, illegal ODS trade had grown to an alarming level. It was estimated that between 16,000 and 38,000 tonnes of illegal CFCs were traded worldwide during 1995. Developing countries are obligated to phase out CFCs by 85% and 100% by 2007 and 2010 respectively, and illegal trade in ODS will be a big challenge for these countries.
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