National Implementation Plan of the Republic of Belarus under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants

The 2011-2015 National Implementation Plan of the Republic of Belarus under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (hereinafter referred to the NIP) was approved by Edict of the President of the Republic of Belarus No. 271 on June 27, 2011 (as revised by Edict of the President of the Republic of Belarus No. 153 of March 30, 2012).

This is the second NIP since Belarus acceded to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants in 2003 (Edict of the President of the Republic of Belarus No. 594 of December 26, 2003) and since the approval of the Belarus National Implementation Plan under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants for 2007–2010 and for the period until 2028.

The NIP is aimed at protecting human health and the environment from the impact of POPs.

The NIP objectives are to provide for:

• environmentally sound storage and destruction of POP wastes that are presently stocked in the country;
• detection, survey and cleaning of POP contaminated areas, rehabilitation of the environment;
• development of the National system of environmental and human health monitoring in relation to the impact of POPs;
• reduction and termination of accidental release of POPs in the process of production;
• development and improvement of the legislation of the Republic of Belarus in the field of POPs management;
• improvement of the POPs accounting framework;
• information exchange on solution of the POPs problem with the Stockholm Convention Secretariat and Parties;
• public awareness raising on POPs issues;
• improvement of the efficiency of scientific research in POPs.

The NIP provides for implementation of 31 activities streamlined within a logical matrix with implementation deadlines, financing amounts and sources, agencies in charge for each activity and distributed among the following areas:

• legislation development and improvement;
• POP management improvement;
• management of obsolete pesticides;
• management of PCB equipment, material and wastes;
• monitoring of POP content in the environment;
• reduction of POP emissions resulting from unintended production of POPs;
• human health monitoring in relation to the impact of POPs;
• public awareness raising and educational activities;
• scientific and technical support of POP management.

The allotment for implementation of the NIP activities in 2011-2015 amounts to BYR 72,875.4 mln including BYR 20,950 mln from the central government budget, BYR 21,700 mln from the local government budgets, BYR 360 mln from the central budget's national environmental management fund, BYR 13,830.4 mln from corporate funds, and BYR 16,035 mln from the funds of international technical assistance.

2011-2015 National Implementation Plan of the Republic of Belarus under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants