GEF: Regionally
Based Assessment
of Persistent Toxic
Substances
First Regional Team Meeting Report XI region Eastern and western South
America, Concepción Chile, 18-20 April 2001
Present were
Paul Whylie UNEP Chemicals, Project Manager
Ricardo Barra, Regional Coordinator, Centro EULA-Chile, UDEC Chile
Juan Carlos Colombo, UNAP, Argentina
Wilson de Figueiredo Jardim, UNICAMP, Brasil
Gabriela Eguren, UDER, Uruguay
Nadia Gamboa, PUCP, Perú
Claudia Paratori , CONAMA , Chile (friday 20th April)
1. Opening Remarks
Dr. Oscar Parra Director of the EULA-Chile center welcomed the participants to the
meeting. He expressed the total willingness of the EULA and the University of
Concepción to the successful development of the project within the region. He endorsed
the commitment of Ricardo Barra to lead the project at the regional level. Finally he
wished all a successful meeting.
2. Presentation of each team member.
The regional coordinator welcomed all participants and presented the following
objectives for the meeting:
a) To analyse the project their objectives, workplan and outcomes
b) To identify actions for implementing a network within the region related to PTS
substances
c) To identify duties and responsibilities of each regional team member.
d) To plan the regional workshops on sources and environmental levels
e) To analyse the outline of the final report
There was a short presentation of each team member addressing the following
questions:
What research are you conducting or planning to conduct that address issues of
regional pollution with PTS substances?
Which contaminants are of greatest concern?
What opportunities exist at a national level for collecting information related to PTS
substances?
Why do we need international cooperation for facing these issues and what
opportunities exist?
What are or will be the regional trends in PTS usage and pollutant emission?
In general all team members conduct direct research in PTS issues, mainly regarding
environmental levels and impacts on biota.
Nadia Gamboa, worked on air pollution issues and now is moving to PTS substances
research in watersheds in Central Peru specifically the Rimac River basin, which is one
of the most important basins in the country.
Gabriela Eguren is conducting research related to pesticide use and impacts on urban
environments in Montevideo Uruguay.
Juan Carlos Colombo is doing research related to PCBs levels in fish in the Rio de la
Plata Estuary, looking for fingerprints and toxicological importance of PTS within the
toxic burden on Sabalo (a common fish species in this area).
Wilson Jardim, is doing work on the Amazonian region related to mercury cycling, but
also is performing some recent work on PTS levels in air and water.
Ricardo Barra stressed his work on PTS (mainly PCBs) in remote and industrialized
areas in Chile.
3.- Overview of the Project
Objectives of the project were endorsed by the group, also the web site was presented.
It was agreed that the site should be kept as simple as possible for allowing an easy
access from the region.
Names and addresses of each team member need to be updated and translated to the
native language to facilitate the access of the people from the region to the TM. Each
member gave to the PM their updated address.
The information flux system was discussed. It was acknowledged that the process of
filling questionnaires should be maintained as simple as possible.
It was agreed that the spanish and english version of the brochure should be distributed
as soon as possible, for promoting the project objectives and outcomes within the
region. The brochure was translated into a spanish version and sent to the PM for
endorsement and review.
This brochure has to be sent to each TM in order to develop a broad diffusion campaign
within each country and region. The names of the regional team should be added in
order to help people to identify and contact them.
4.- Terms of Reference for Regional Teams
The terms of reference for regional teams were analyzed and endorsed. There was
concern about members from countries not represented in the regional team. It was
agreed that it will be the work of all TM to look for people in those countries.
A Sample MOU was given to each TM for their review and analysis.
Some additional home work was described.
To complete the expert list, TM did not recognize true "experts" in the list provided by
UNEP Chemicals. This list will be completed as soon as possible in order to help in
the planning of the first regional workshop on sources and environmental levels of PTS.
A strategy for motivating countries not represented in the RT should be developed by
team members.
PM should send a letter of appointment/recommendation to the governments of each
team member to facilitate collaboration in the data gathering phase. Each TM will send
to PM a list with the key people for distribution of the letter.
The letter sent by the PM to the RC was changed to introduce TM.
5.- Workplan:
The entire workplan was discussed. It was noted that December was not a good time
for organizing the first regional workshop. Therefore it was decided that the regional
workshops be postponed to the dates specified below. According to the RCs meeting
agreements, workshops will be held in different countries within the region, to facilitate
the dissemination of the information gathered from the project .
It was noticed that a modeling expert will be appointed by UNEP.
A first quarterly regional report to the project manager has to be sent by the end of June
2001. The guidelines were shown by the PM.
6.- Time schedule of all regional meetings:
(1) 1st Technical Workshop on sources and environmental concentrations, Campinas
Brazil, 04-07/03/2002 (Organizers: Wilson Jardim and Juan Carlos Colombo)
(2) 2nd Technical Workshop on ecotoxicological impacts and transboundary
movement, Lima, Peru, 23-26/04/2002 (organizers: Nadia Gamboa, Ricardo
Barra and Gabriela Eguren)
(3) 2nd Regional Team meeting, La Plata, Argentina 27-29 /05/2002 (Local
Organizer: Juan Carlos Colombo)
(4) Priority Setting Meeting, Santiago, Chile, 24- 27/06/2002 (Local Organizer:
Ricardo Barra)
(5) 3rd Regional Team Meeting , Montevideo, Uruguay, 5-7/08/2002 (Local
Organizer: Gabriela Eguren)
List of Chemicals to be addressed by the RT:
After a discussion on the chemicals to be evaluated, the following list was accepted:
PCBs
Chlorinated Pesticides
Dioxins and Furans
HCHs
Pentachlorophenol
These chemicals will be addressed by the group. If there are new chemicals to be
added, proposals will be discussed by e-mail.
7.- Questionnaries:
Questionnaires were widely discussed within the group, mainly those related to sources.
The spanish translation was reviewed and some minor changes were proposed to PM.
Regarding ambient air questions some discussion emerged with flux measurements.
The PM will send an explanation on that specific issue.
After this, it was a very interesting discussion in order to plan adequately the strategies
to be followed at regional level for implementing the data gathering phase. The
following steps were identified:
1. Identify people from the governments to which UNEP has to send a letter
2. To identify and contact the national experts on PTS issues.
3. National promotion of the project (scientific meetings, government meetings, NGOs,
Industry etc.)
4. To include an RT meeting in October 2001, during the 4th Latin America SETAC
congress to be held in Buenos Aires. A panel should be set up for this meeting.
The budget for data gathering was discussed. It was agreed to move some money for
the meetings to this Item, since US$30000.- is insufficient to cover this important phase
of the project and that money can be saved in workshops. RT meetings could cost less
than the considered money for this Item in the original budget, then savings could be
made. A letter will be send by the RC to the PM relative to this specific issue.
The team considers that the funds outlined in the original budget for data gathering
should be divided as follows:
Brasil US$ 5.000
Argentina US$ 5.000
Peru US$ 3.000
Uruguay US$ 3000
Chile US$ 3000
8.- Regional Report and Responsibilities
The responsibilities for the writing of the regional report were distributed as follows:
Persons responsible for the preparation of background materials:
Preface: Ricardo Barra
Introduction: Ricardo Barra
Source Characterization: Wilson Jardim
Environmental Levels and Ecotoxicological characterization: Juan Carlos Colombo,
Ricardo Barra
Assessment of Major Pathways of Contaminant transport. Nadia Gamboa
Preliminary Assessment of the regional capacity and needs to manage PTS. Gabriela
Eguren.
Conclusions: RT
9.-Adjournment
In summary, both the RC and the PM expressed satisfaction with the results of the
meeting and wished all a successful project development for the region. The RC
thanked all participants and wished all a safe trip back home. The meeting adjourned at
1215 hours on April 20, 2001.
Notes: TM : Team member
PM Project Manager
RT: Regional Team