By Elvin Carl Croker

THE meeting of a National Working Group (NWG) on the Minamata Convention on Mercury was convened at the Ministry of Natural Resources on Main Street, Georgetown on Friday.

The Minamata Convention on Mercury is a global treaty to protect human health and the environment from the adverse effects of mercury. Its objective is to protect human health and the environment from anthropogenic emissions and releases of mercury and mercury compounds and a range of measures to meet that objective is set out. The meeting looked at updates on current efforts by government and the National Action Plan (NAP) going forward and the role of the NWG.

The NWG comprised stakeholders representing various organisations– miners, the international community in the form of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Conservation International (CI) and the Basel Convention partners, who joined by skype from Trinidad. Also present were Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman and Vice President and Minister of Indigenous People’s Affairs, Sydney Allicock.

National Focal Point person for the Minamata Convention on Mercury and Policy Analyst at the Ministry of Natural Resources, Mariscia Charles, told the participants that the government recognises the environmental and human health risks of mercury use and pollution, and supports the implementation of the Minamata Convention.

Guyana had signed the Convention on Mercury on October 10, 2013, ratifying it on September 24, 2014. Guyana was also elected as one of the two vice-presidents from the Group of Latin America and the Caribbean (GRULAC) to serve on the Bureau of COP 3.

Charles said the Minamata Convention follows and builds on the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm (BRS) conventions which came into force on August 16, 2017. This was the first global agreement on health and the environment for close to a decade. She reminded participants of Guyana’s participation in the Plenary sessions which focussed on freeing the Amazon from the impacts of mercury used in artisanal and small-scale gold mining.

“In keeping with our obligation under the Minamata Convention, we have partnered with United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Basel Convention, Regional Centre (BCRC) for the completion of our National Action Plan as stated in Article 7, Annex C of the Convention,” she said.

Guyana is taking formidable steps towards the elimination of the use of mercury in the mining sector and the implementation of the Minamata Convention on Mercury, and is working assiduously on the completion of the NAP.

In September 2017, President David Granger had attended the inaugural Conference of Parties (COP1) in Geneva, Switzerland where he affirmed Guyana’s position and committed to the elimination of mercury usage by 2027.

Minister Raphael Trotman, in November 19-23, 2018, headed a five- member Guyanese delegation to the COP2 in Geneva, Switzerland. Preliminary studies on the mercury landscape in Guyana have indicated that its use and releases are predominately dominated by the medium, small and artisanal mining sectors.

As required by signatories of the Minamata Convention and through funding by GEF and technical support of UNDP, Guyana completed the Minamata Initial Assessment (MIA) in 2016. In 2017, Guyana completed the first draft of the NAP and convened a National Working Group (NWG) to facilitate consultations for review, comments and support for the approval of the NAP.

In 2018, with the increase of mercury incidents and the entry into force of the Minamata Convention, Minister Trotman had called for the reconvening of the NWG on the Minamata Convention and formidable efforts by all stakeholders for the completion and approval of the NAP and the full implementation of the Minamata Convention. There are currently 128 signatories and 102 parties to the Minamata Convention.