2 May 2025, Geneva, Switzerland - The Kingdom of Tonga is one of six Pacific island countries that are a party to all three of the Basel, Rotterdam, and Stockholm (BRS) Conventions, the Conventions which aim to better manage and control hazardous wastes and chemicals, and they have reaped the benefits of being a party over the years.
Ms. Mafile’o Masi, Deputy Director for the Department of Environment and Head of Waste Management and Pollution Control Division for the Kingdom of Tonga, says that while chemicals do pose benefits for the country’s economic development and in the everyday lives of its residents, they become a risk when they are misused and mismanaged which threaten human health and the environment.
“The BRS Conventions COPs theme for this year, ‘Make the Invisible Visible’ reminds us that even though we cannot see chemicals with our own eyes, its impact on our people and our region is huge that it can’t be avoided. We became parties to the BRS Conventions because we recognised that we lacked the capacity and the resources to deal with hazardous wastes and chemicals, most of which are imported,” Ms. Masi says.
“Being a party member to the BRS Conventions means that our efforts to address pollution and hazardous wastes are well coordinated and have adopted an integrated approach,” she adds.
Ms. Masi is one of the more seasoned negotiators from the Pacific to the BRS COPs, and she says Tonga has made great progress over the years in fulfilling their obligations to the Conventions with the recent submission of its National Implementation Plan Update to the Stockholm Convention.
Tonga, under the Stockholm Convention, has banned and manage most of the listed Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). The Basel Convention has provided much needed capacity development and assistance that has allowed them to better understand the chemical contents of hazardous materials. This has enabled them to better control transboundary movement of hazardous wastes.
“Through the BRS Conventions, we have received training on POPs inventory and transboundary movement of hazardous wastes and have developed the Hazardous Wastes and Chemicals Act 2010 to meet its obligations under the relevant Conventions,” Ms. Masi adds.
However, despite having developed the legislation to control hazardous wastes and chemicals, Tonga still has a gap in the capacity required to effectively enforce the Act. This is something that being a party to the BRS Conventions has greatly assisted Tonga with.
“The triple COP is also a platform that enables us to report our achievements and our potential to effectively implement the Conventions. Our limited capacity is a challenge that we share with the rest of the Pacific island countries, therefore, we need to stand united to deliver tangible results.”
Ms. Masi reminisces that over the years, the number of Pacific island countries becoming parties to the Conventions has grown, which emphasise that the impact of hazardous wastes and chemicals is no longer invisible but visible.
“To ensure that no one gets left behind, I encourage Pacific island countries that have yet to ratify the BRS Conventions, to do so with haste. You have a moral duty as stewards to ensure that the people and the environment are well protected from the adverse impact of hazardous wastes and chemicals,” she concludes.
The 17th Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention, 12th Conference of the Parties to the Rotterdam Convention, and the 12th Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention is being held from 28 April – 9 May 2025 in Geneva, Switzerland.
The Basel Convention on the Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal aims to reduce the generation of hazardous waste and promote environmentally-sound management of hazardous waste, restrict the transboundary movements of hazardous waste and put in place a regulatory system applicable to cases where transboundary movements are permissible.
The Rotterdam Convention on the Prior, Informed Consent Procedure for Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade aims to promote shared responsibility and collaborative effort among Parties in the international trade of certain hazardous chemicals in order to protect human health and the environment from potential harm.
The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) is a global treaty to protect from chemicals that remain intact in the environment for long periods of time and accumulate in the fatty tissues of human and wildlife, resulting in harmful impacts on human health and the environment.
The representatives from the Pacific include Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Palau, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.