ECOSPHERE

ECOSPHERE supported the Pesticides Action Network (PAN) UK, PAN Africa and PAN Asia Pacific in their project on “Pesticides and Poverty: Implementing Chemical Conventions for safe and just development”. The project assists developing countries to use the unique opportunity of new international initiatives on chemicals to integrate an environmental dimension into their development priorities, promote sustainable livelihoods, and at the same time make an impression on the extensive and increasing problems of pesticides.

ECOSPHERE prepared a manual on the Chemical Conventions and Codes, as a tool for governments, NGOs, CSOs and others to use in strenthening national and regional regulatory environments. The manual is in the form of a consolidated guide and checklist for implementation. It is aimed at increasing understanding of the Chemical Conventions and processes and at easing the burden of implementation by simplifying obligations and highlighting synergies. It covers the Rotterdam, Stockholm, Basle, Bamako Conventions, Montreal Protocol, Biosafety Protocol, FAO and WHO codes, and deals with the relationship to IFCS-initiated activities and other appropriate processes. The manual is available on the PAN UK web site in English, Swahili and French.

ECOSPHERE participates in a project initiated by the Paris-based Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI - Institut du développement durable et des relations internationales) to contribute to the ongoing debate on how to improve international environmental governance. IDDRI is a policy research institute based in Paris and supported by the French government and business, as well as French scientific research institutions. IDDRI works on major issues of governance for sustainable development in cooperation with international research networks.
An international expert conference organised by IDDRI in March 2004 underlined the necessity of launching a process focused on substance and not on institutions. The assumption was that international governance should be improved through the development of solid building blocks before creating a new architecture. A policy debate on these building blocks would produce a far better result than any debate on the global structure. Accordingly, IDDRI commissioned a series of thematic papers on the various "building blocks" of international environmental governance in order to enlighten the debate and help policy makers to design the future global environmental governance system. These papers are intended, inter alia, to inform the work of the informal working group on a UN Environment Organization established by the French government in New York and Nairobi.

ECOSPHERE was asked to contribute a paper on "The Role of Stakeholders in International Environmental Governance". This paper was co-authored by Marc Pallemaerts and Marlène Moreau.