1 May 2025, Geneva, Switzerland – The Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), like other Pacific Island countries, is a country of imports. In fact, imported products and materials needed for agriculture, health, construction, transportation, and general consumption become a challenge when they become waste due to the lack of effective infrastructure systems to store and treat waste.
This is a concern that the Basel and Stockholm Conventions have helped the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) to address over the years, according to Ms. Patricia Pedrus, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Environment Division at the FSM Department of Environment, Climate Change and Emergency Management.
According to Ms. Pedrus, a lot of the waste stored on land is usually destined to be exported to other countries for final disposal or recycling. However, sometimes, the markets for exportation can be limited and not feasible, which hinders FSM from taking that next step for final disposal. The waste is then left to pile up on the islands.
“We need to continue to move forward and develop our waste infrastructure systems, so that we can treat waste and not just store them,” Ms. Pedrus says.
Ms. Pedrus is in Geneva, Switzerland accompanying Assistant Secretary Cynthia Ehmes of the FSM DECEM, this week, representing the FSM at the Triple Conferences of the Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam, and Stockholm Conventions. FSM is a party to the Basel and Stockholm Convention, having ratified the Basel in1995 and the Stockholm in 2005.
FSM has been able to address capacity and infrastructural concerns through the Conventions, and to meet obligations under the Conventions. “We’ve been fortunate to be Parties of the Basel and Stockholm Conventions. Through the conventions, we have had opportunities to engage in programs that enabled us to develop capacity building and enhance waste infrastructure systems,” says Ms. Pedrus.
The 17th Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention and the 12th Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention are being held concurrently, along with the 12th Conference of the Parties to the Rotterdam Convention. Ms. Pedrus says that she is particularly proud of this year’s COPs because of the theme by which it is being guided.
“The theme of this year’s COP being ‘Making the Invisible Visible’ is very relevant to us as Pacific Small Island Developing States,” Ms. Pedrus says.
“As small, vulnerable, and isolated islands, we have the opportunity to engage with the international community through negotiations, and address our concerns through the COP meetings. The meetings are beneficial to SIDS.”