October 2012: The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the European Commission have released the June 2012 issue of the newsletter on the Multilateral Environment Agreements in African, Caribbean and Pacific countries (ACP MEAs) Project. The newsletter features a guest article on the ways in which pesticide management contributes to the implementation of Multilateral Environment Agreements (MEAs).

The article by Mark Davis and Francesca Mancini, Pesticide Risk Reduction Group, Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN, outlines the FAO’s work under the ACP MEAs Project in providing guidance and capacity-building at national level and coordination at regional level, to participating countries. It notes the FAO’s efforts at working with countries to develop inventories for, safeguarding, and disposing of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) and other obsolete pesticides from Africa and the Pacific.

The newsletter also contains information on recently completed activities in the African, Caribbean and Pacific project hubs. Activities implemented at the African Hub, housed at the African Union Commission (AUC), included the release of a joint African Hub and African Monitoring of the Environment for Sustainable Development (AMESD) policy brief, to create synergies and to foster collaboration with other EU-funded programs at the AUC.

At the Pacific Hub, which is housed at the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), activities included: negotiation skills training in Kiribati, Palau and Vanuatu; and MEA mainstreaming training in Samoa.

The Caribbean Hub, housed at the Secretariat of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), convened a regional negotiation skills training workshop in Basseterre, Saint Kitts and Nevis. [Publication: ACP MEAs Newsletter, Vol. 4, Issue 2]