The growth of world trade in pesticides during the 1960s and 1970s led to increased concerns about the risks of using hazardous chemicals. In the early 1980s, farmers, workers and communities around the world, and especially in the Global South, began organizing to protect themselves from pesticides imports.
Political pressure led to the development of the International Code of Conduct on the Distribution and Use of Pesticides by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 1985. The procedure known as Prior Informed Consent (PIC) was added in 1989 to help control imports of unwanted chemicals that have been banned or severely restricted in exporting countries. This “procedure” was eventually incorporated into the Rotterdam Convention, an international treaty which became international law in 2004.
In the 1990s, the global community set controls of a class of chemicals known as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in motion. POPs chemicals persist in the environment, bioaccumulate in living organisms and can be transported on wind and water currents across the globe. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) identified twelve POPs for global elimination under the Stockholm Convention, which also came into force in 2004.
A brief overview of the history and function of each of these global processes is outlined below.
FAO Code of Conduct
In the early 1980s, Pesticide Action Network (PAN) partners across the globe documented illegal and dangerous pesticide use practices, which helped spur the creation of international standards to deal with these problems. The FAO Code of Conduct on the Distribution and Use of Pesticides (FAO Code), developed in 1985 and updated in 2002, establishes standards for “all public and private entities engaged in or associated with the distribution and use of pesticides, particularly where there is inadequate or no national legislation to regulate pesticides.”
The FAO Code includes guidance on pesticide trade practices, promotes safe handling, and encourages widespread adoption of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) to minimize pesticide use. The Code also includes specific guidelines national governments should take to protect public health and the environment and promote IPM through training and educational materials. The Code includes specific standards for pesticide advertising, labeling, storage, and disposal.
PAN Asia Pacific has recently updated their FAO Code Monitoring Manual, a tool designed for communities around the world to document on-the-ground evidence of compliance or non-compliance with the standards.
Rotterdam Convention
In 1981, the Center for Investigative Reporting published Circle of Poison, a book documenting the export of pesticides from countries where they had been banned to nations in the Global South. After putting farmers and communities throughout Latin America, Africa and Asia at risk, these same chemicals often returned to exporting countries in the North as food residues. After publication in many languages and widespread circulation, groups in several countries organized themselves into a global network (Pesticide Action Network, or PAN) to challenge this practice that was putting the lives of farmers and communities around the world at risk.
PAN International, founded in Penang, Malaysia in 1982, pressed for establishment of the Prior Informed Consent (PIC) procedure as part of the FAO Code, so importing countries would be informed that the pesticide they were purchasing had been banned in two or more countries. The FAO’s PIC procedure laid the foundation for the “Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade.”
The Rotterdam Convention (or “PIC Treaty”) was signed onto by participating countries in September 1998, which signaled their intention to ratify the treaty — a process which usually requires a legislative action within each country. When enough countries have ratified, the treaty “enters into force” and becomes international law — for the Rotterdam Convention, this happened in 2004. The PIC Treaty is implemented jointly by FAO and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
The Rotterdam Convention outlines a process for adding chemicals to a “PIC list” that triggers notification of importing countries. In brief, if a chemical has been banned or severely restricted in more than two regions of the world, it may be added to the PIC list. The official list is found in Annex III of the Rotterdam Convention (see below).
Stockholm Convention
The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (“POPs Treaty”) was signed in 2001 and entered into force in 2004. Nine of the 12 initial chemicals targeted for global elimination under the treaty are organochlorine pesticides (aldrin, endrin, dieldrin, DDT, chlordane, heptachlor, hexachlorobenzene, toxaphene and mirex) — all of which were targeted in the PAN International Dirty Dozen campaign in the mid-1980s. The industrial chemicals dioxin, furans and PCBs were also on the initial list.
The POPs Treaty includes provisions to add additional chemicals which meet agreed-upon criteria for persistence in the environment, bioaccumulation, and transportability. The POPs Review Committee, which consists of designated experts from member countries as well as NGO observers, reviews candidate chemicals as they are nominated by member countries. As of 2020, 16 additional chemicals have been added to the POPs list for elimination; seven of these are pesticides.
About the data: POPs pesticides listed under the Stockholm Convention are labeled “Yes” in the PesticideInfo database; those that are under review by the POPs Review Committee are either “Under Review” if the review is in progress, or “Reviewed” if the review is complete, but no decision has been made. All other chemicals are “Not Listed.” The review process for additional chemicals is ongoing and the list could change as frequently as twice per year; more commonly, changes take several years to occur.
Resources:
Rotterdam Convention, Prior Informed Consent
Annex III, List of PIC Chemicals