Posted on December, 12 2005

Four treaties hold great promise for protecting people, wildlife, and the environment from the
threat of persistent organic pollutants and other toxic chemicals.

WWF is urging governments to ratify this package of critical treaties:

1. the Stockholm POPs Convention;
2. the Rotterdam Convention on prior informed consent;
3. the Basel Convention on transboundary movement of hazardous wastes, together with its 1995 Ban on OECD to nonOECD waste transfers; and
4. the 1996 Protocol to the London Convention on ocean dumping.

When in force and fully implemented, these four global instruments will help safeguard wildlife and people from hazardous industrial chemicals and pesticides while also tackling the collateral problems of obsolete stockpiles, hazardous materials dumped at sea, and toxic waste trafficking.