Ahead of the Curve: GRID-Arendal Annual Report 2016

Participants undertake a practical exercise on transboundary waste shipments during a workshop in Malaysia in September 2016. Photo: Ieva Rucevska

Indonesia. These guidelines will soon be available online. Riksrevisjonen (the Office of Auditor General of Norway) is themain coordinator of the waste guidelines and expressed its appreciation for GRID-Arendal ’s contribution and help in improving the quality of the guidance paper. The waste report also led to GRID-Arendal facilitating national training workshops in Indonesia and Malaysia on combating illegal trade in chemicals and waste for customs and experts from environmental authorities. The workshops, developed with the European Union, UN Environment and national authorities, yielded concrete results. During the workshop, intelligence was received about illegal shipments of contaminated plastic on its way from Europe to Port Klang, Malaysia. The information was passed on to the customs division at the port and the shipment was returned to its country of origin. Following the workshop, the Malaysian Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment committed to

improve cooperation between environmental authorities and customs in the country.

GRID-Arendal continues to develop innovative partnerships to tackle environmental crime. For example, last year saw the launch of a new project funded by the European Space Agency in partnership with the INTERPOL. Called “MArine and coastal satellite Services to TRack Environmental Crime activities (MASTREC)”, the project uses sattelites to detect the illegal transportation of rosewood and charcoal in Somalia, the Middle East and Madagascar from space. “The day the government really wants to end illegal mining, they have to go after the ones who invest in illegal mining.”

Erik Solheim, Executive Director, UN Environment

13