Dialogue with compliance bodies: communications pertaining to establishing a dialogue with compliance bodies

Transcription

1 UNITED NATIONS BC UNEP/CHW/CC.10/INF/3 Distr.: General 27 September 2013 English only Committee for Administering the Mechanism for Promoting the Implementation and Compliance of the Basel Convention Tenth meeting Paris, 5 6 December 2013 Item 4 (a) (iv) of the provisional agenda Review of general issues of compliance and implementation under the Convention: national reporting: dialogue with other compliance bodies Dialogue with compliance bodies: communications pertaining to establishing a dialogue with compliance bodies Note by the Secretariat As referred to in document UNEP/CHW/CC.10/7 on the dialogue with compliance bodies, the present note sets out in its annex the communications received from compliance bodies in furtherance to the 28 June 2012 invitation by the Chair of the Committee to enter a dialogue. The communications have been reproduced as received and have not been edited. UNEP/CHW/CC.10/

2 Annex Communications received from compliance bodies in furtherance to the invitation by the Chair of the Committee to enter a dialogue Table of contents Page Communication from the Chair of the Compliance Committee under the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety...3 Communication from the Chairman of the CITES Standing Committee...5 Letter from the Chairpersons of the Compliance Committee of the Kyoto Protocol...7 Communication from the Chair of the London Protocol Compliance Branch...12 Communication from the President of the Implementation Committee of the Montreal Protocol

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5 CITES From: Øystein Størkersen Sent: Thursday, August 23, :09 PM To: Juliette Kohler Subject: MEAs and compliance Dear Ms Nieto, Thank you for your letter of 28 June 2012 on "Establishing a dialogue with other multilateral environmental agreement compliance bodies dealing with national reporting issues". National reports are a standing agenda item on the agenda of the CITES Standing Committee, particularly in relation to the late submission or non-submission of annual reports. Under Article VIII, paragraph 7 (a), of the Convention, Parties are required to submit annual reports which summarize their records of trade in specimens of species listed in the CITES Appendices. The maintenance of these records and the submission of related periodic reports are Convention obligations identified in paragraph 2 (d) of the Guide to CITES compliance procedures. As provided in Resolution Conf (Rev. CoP14) on National reports, the Conference of the Parties has decided that: a) failure to submit an annual report by 31 October of the year following the year for which the report was due constitutes a major problem with the implementation of the Convention, which the Secretariat shall refer to the Standing Committee for a solution in accordance with Resolution Conf (Rev. CoP15); and b) the Secretariat may approve a valid request from a Party for a reasonable extension of time to the 31 October deadline for the submission of annual or biennial reports provided the Party submits to the Secretariat a written request, containing adequate justification, before that deadline; The CoP has instructed "the Standing Committee to determine, on the basis of reports presented by the Secretariat, which Parties have failed, for three consecutive years and without having provided adequate justification, to provide the annual reports required under Article VIII, paragraph 7 (a), of the Convention within the deadline (or any extended deadline) provided in the present Resolution". The CoP has also recommended that "Parties not authorize trade in specimens of CITES-listed species with any Party that the Standing Committee has determined has failed, for three consecutive years and without having provided adequate justification, to provide the annual reports required under Article VIII, paragraph 7 (a), of the Convention within the deadline (or any extended deadline) provided in the present Resolution". If Parties are experiencing problems with the regular preparation and submission of annual or biennial reports, the CoP has urged them to seek assistance from the Secretariat to produce those reports. At its 62nd meeting (Geneva, July 2012), the Standing Committee agreed that the Secretariat should issue a Notification to the Parties recommending a suspension of trade in specimens of CITES-listed species with Guinea-Bissau, Nepal, Rwanda, the Solomon Islands and the Syrian Arab Republic, in accordance with Resolution Conf (Rev. CoP14), unless those countries submitted their missing annual reports to the Secretariat by 1 October The Secretariat has since received some of the missing reports and will be contacting other concerned Parties to try and obtain additional reports by 1 October

6 Following the 61st meeting of the Standing Committee (Geneva, August 2011), the Secretariat issued Notification to the Parties No. 2011/036 of 14 September 2011 recommending a suspension of trade with Libya for the non-submission of annual reports. Once Libya submitted its missing reports on 5 January 2012, the Secretariat issued Notification to the Parties No. 2012/005 of 6 January 2012 withdrawing the recommended trade suspension. Although submission levels for biennial reports [required under Article VIII, paragraph 7 (b), of the Convention] have been substantially lower than for annual reports, CITES Parties have not yet extended the above compliance measures to biennial reports. Efforts are currently underway in the Standing Committee Working Group on Special Reporting Requirements, however, to better align the biennial report format with indicators under the CITES Strategic Vision: and relevant Aichi Targets for the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity It is also expected that a pilot online version of the revised format will be developed with contracted assistance from UNEP-WCMC. Making the biennial report more relevant, as well as easier to prepare and submit, should help to improve current levels of submission. As reflected in Decision (Rev. CoP15) of the Conference of the Parties, the Secretariat is continuing to collaborate with others on the harmonization of knowledge management and reporting. It is also working to identify additional ways to reduce the reporting burden on Parties. With regard to the latter, the Secretariat supports activities of the Standing Committee Working Group on Information Technologies and Electronic Systems to assist interested Parties with the development and use of electronic permitting systems. The Secretariat has also been working with UNEP- WCMC to explore ways in which Parties could directly download their national trade data into the CITES global trade database. Such new technologies should help to make reporting less burdensome and more timely. You will see from the above that CITES Parties have used, and will probably continue to use, both 'carrots' and 'sticks' to bring about improvements in the submission of national reports under the Convention. If you have any specific points about national reporting that you would like me to address, or if you need clarification of any of the points made above, please let me know. CITES is a fairly 'mature' Convention and there is other information and experience that I could share. Yours sincerely Øystein Størkersen Chair CITES Standing Committee 6

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12 London Protocol From: Johan Lammers Sent: Tuesday, July 03, :22 AM To: Juliette Kohler Subject: Re: Letter from the Chair of the Basel Convention Implementation and Compliance Committee Dear ms Kohler, Thank you very much for sending me the letter of Ms Jimena Nieto, Please, find herewith in the attachments the Reports of the First, Second, Third and Fourth (last) Meeting of the London Protocol Compliance Group as well as IMO doc LC29/17, which contains in Annex 7 the text of the LP/CG Compliance Procedures and Mechanism. In those reports Ms Jimena Nieto will find information on the national reporting issues with which the LP Compliance Group has been confronted during its operation. If Ms Nieto needs information on some more specific aspects of the work of the LP/CG, please, let me know and we will try to answer them. With kind regards, Johan G. Lammers Chair LP/CG. Attachments: LC_29-17_-_Table_o f_contents_(secretar LC_33-WP.2_-_Repo LC_32-WP.2_-_Repo LC_31-WP.1_-_Repo rt_of_the_fourth_mrt_of_the_third_mee rt_of_the_second_m 12

13 Montreal Protocol From: Sent: vendredi, 28. décembre :30 To: Juliette Kohler Cc: Marco Gonzalez; Gilbert Bankobeza; Gerald Mutisya; Azra Rogovic Grubic Subject: Re: Letter from the Chair of the Basel Convention Implementation and Compliance Committee Dear Ms Kohler, Thank you very much for your invitation for us to share with you and your colleagues the experiences we may have in the Montreal Protocol's Implementation Committee with regard to the issue of reporting (including late reporting or non reporting) by the Parties. As you may be aware of, based on Article 7 of the Montreal Protocol the Parties are obliged to report on production and consumption of ozone depleting substances. Formally, reporting is due by 30 September each year, though the Parties were encouraged through a MOP decision to report by 30 June since early reporting facilitates the work of the Secretariat and of the Implementation Committee. Great majority of Parties of the Protocol do report on time, and if there are cases of non reporting the Implementation Committee is in the position to deal with them. Both myself (on my capacity as Head of the Implementation Committee for the year 2013) and - I'm sure - also the relevant Ozone Secretariat staff would be pleased to answer your questions regarding that matter. We may also consider establishing a more formal dialogue if you feel it could be helpful. If you have any ideas in that respect, please let me know. Best regards Janusz Kozakiewicz PS Taking that opportunity let me wish you and your colleagues from Basel Convention all the best for the New Year Dr. Janusz Kozakiewicz Professor Head of Ozone Layer and Climate Protection Unit Industrial Chemistry Research Institute 8, Rydygiera Street, Warsaw, Poland Tel: (+48-22) (+48-22) FREE Tel/Fax: (+48-22) address: kozak@ichp.pl (+48-22) FREE 13