May 2014: The Basel, Stockholm and Rotterdam (BRS) Conventions Secretariat has released its first Technical Assistance Newsletter. The newsletter includes brief updates on recent technical assistance activities, news, and upcoming technical assistance events.

On activities, the newsletter outlines the BRS Secretariat’s involvement in: the training of Asia and Pacific customs officials in cooperation with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) OzonAction Compliance Programme; the Environmental Network for Optimizing Regulatory Compliance on Illegal Traffic (ENFORCE) preparation of a report titled ‘Overview of the Challenges and Needs of Parties and Various Stakeholders in Preventing and Combating Illegal Traffic in Line with the Requirements of the Basel Convention;’ pilot projects on industrial chemicals listed in the Rotterdam Convention in Botswana, Jordan, Mauritania and Honduras; and activities to assist countries in the reduction and elimination of endosulfan.

In other technical assistance news, the newsletter also spotlights the Norwegian Government-funded Regional Centre Small Grant Projects. According to the newsletter, regional centres under the Basel and Stockholm were invited to submit low cost high impact project proposals. A total of 16 proposals from 11 centres were received and the following selected for funding: the Basel Convention Regional Centre (BCRC) China’s Assessing the Status of E-waste recycling in Selected Countries in the Asia-Pacific Region and Facilitating the Environmentally Sound Management of E-waste; BCRC Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme’s Improving regional management of used lead-acid batteries (ULABs) in the Pacific; BCRC Caribbean’s Developing a Waste Tyre Management System for the Caribbean Region; Stockholm Convention Regional Centre (SCRC) Spain’s Supporting Green Entrepreneurs for a persistent organic pollutants (POPs) free Mediterranean; SCRC Czech Republic’s enhancing the use of the GMP (Global Monitoring Plan) electronic tool and increasing global data management; and SCRC Brazil’s Technical and practical training course on POPs and mercury analysis in various environmental matrices for English-speaking SIDS from the Latin America and the Caribbean Region. [Technical Assistance Newsletter, May 2014]