The Stockholm Convention:

The Stockholm Convention Persistent Organic Pollutants 2001

The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants 2001 is a international agreement by the nations of the world to address the global chemical pollution.

The objective of Stockholm Convention is to protect human health and the environment from persistent organic pollutants or POPs. POPs include the organochlorine pesticides; DDT, endrin, dieldrin, aldrin, chlordane, toxaphene, heptachlor, hexachlorobenzene, mirex; and the industrial chemicals and by-products; PCBs, dioxins and furans.

These initial twelve chemicals, the 'poisons without passports' were chosen because they have the common hazardous characteristics of toxicity, persistence and bioaccumulation, and are capable of travelling vast distances via water and air.

The Convention aims to eliminate the production, use and emissions of POPs while preventing the introduction of new chemicals with POP-like characteristics and ensuring the environmentally sound destruction of POPs waste stockpiles.

The Convention sets out the actions that country Parties must take to achieve this. It also requires country Parties to to reduce and where feasible, eliminate releases of byproduct POPs chemicals.

Technical and financial assistance is offered to developing country Parties to help implement the Stockholm Convention.

IPEN and the GEF Small Grants Program have developed a training module to build awareness about POPs, the legal and institutional arrangements and examples of community-based POPs management. The POPs training module consists of 9 chapters, followed by a basic self-test. Each individual who completes and returns the self-test will receive a certificate of completion.

  IPEN SGP POPs Awareness Training Module

For more information:

  GEF Small Grants Programme

  UNEP Stockholm Convention page

  Version: July 2008