National Implementation Plan for the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs).

National Implementation Plan for the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (NIP) provides a policy framework and describes concrete interventions to reach the national objectives and priorities regarding the management of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), and to meet the obligations taken by the Republic of Moldova under the Stockholm Convention. The NIP seeks to encourage, facilitate and support national and local authorities in their efforts to collect and properly dispose of POPs as well as to remediate or contain sources of POPs pollution. To this end, a wide range of tools is proposed, including regulatory, voluntary, remedial, monitoring, enforcement, and research tools.
The goal of the NIP is to ensure compliance with the national obligations under the Stockholm Convention and to reduce and eliminate risks to human health, the environment and national development from past, current and future exposure to POPs. The NIP seeks to encourage, facilitate and support, to the possible extent, national and local authorities in their efforts to collect and properly dispose POPs, as well as to remediate or contain sources of POPs pollution.
The national policy regarding POPs chemicals is driven by understanding that a national chemical safety management system needs to be created for applying a precautionary, prevention and polluter pays approach in identifying chemicals pressures and impacts, in assessing remediation options and in implementing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation and negative societal, particularly health, impacts.
The policy has two key management objectives: (a) remediation and virtual elimination from the environment of POPs that result predominantly from human activity and that are persistent and bio-accumulative; and (b) management of other toxic substances and chemicals, throughout their entire life cycles, to avoid, prevent or minimize their release into the environment.
The national policy regarding POPs, which is an integral part of national environmental policy, is driven by understanding that a comprehensive chemical safety management system needs to be created in the Republic of Moldova. The NIP is consistent with the national sustainable development strategy and programs aiming at harmonizing economic, environmental and social aspects of development.
Pursuant to the requirements of the Stockholm Convention, the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources and other stakeholders have identified the following strategic objectives: (a) reduction of POPs releases from intentional production and use; (b) prohibit of production and use (except PCBs in equipment) and elimination of import and export of POPs chemicals listed in Annexes A and B by 2005; (c) establishment of a schedule to phase out the use of PCBs in equipment according to Annex A, Part II (a) of the Convention and totally ban these PCBs by 2025; (d) implementation of systematic measures for reduction of exposure and risk from use of PCB-containing equipment according to the Annex A, part II, b of the Convention; (e) prohibition of recovery for reuse in other equipment of PCB-containing liquids according to the Stockholm Convention requirements (Annex A, part II, d) by amendments of legislation until the 2010 and establishment of environmentally sound waste management of liquids and equipment contaminated by PCBs not later than 2028; (f) evaluation of national options for specific exemptions according to the Stockholm convention requirements by 2005; (g) establishment of a mechanism for the assessment of new pesticides and industrial chemicals (in accordance with the POPs criteria) by 2007; and (h) implementation of assessment of pesticides and industrial chemicals in use according to the POPs criteria by 2010.
The specific monitoring strategies should be tailored for POPs groups (as pesticides, PCBs, PCDD/PCDF), for different purposes (e.g., source, ambient and impacts monitoring) and for various media and components (water, soil, sediments, biota, agricultural and food production and humans). The monitoring system should be tested (e.g., in pilot regions) and modified if required.