Asia Monitor

UNU e-Newsletter

Issue 18. October 2006

In this issue

International News: COP3 of the Rotterdam Convention, Geneva, 9-13 October 2006.
The Rotterdam Convention was designed “to promote shared responsibility and cooperative efforts among Parties in the international trade of certain hazardous chemicals, in order to protect human health and the environment from potential harm and to contribute to their environmentally sound use by facilitating information exchange about their characteristics, providing for a national decision-making process on their import and export and disseminating these decisions to Parties.” One of the COP3 agendas will be the consideration of a chemical, chrysotile asbestos, for inclusion in Annex III of the Convention. Annex III lists chemicals subject to the prior informed consent procedure.

Click here to learn more about the COP3 and the Convention

Asia News: Workshops on East Asia monitoring and related meetings in Kyoto in September 2006

A series of workshops and meetings were held in Kyoto in September followed by an International Conference. Two project partners from this UNU project have joined as national expert delegates.

To read more click here

Prof. Pham Hung Viet [left] and　Dr. Evangeline Santiago [left] were selected as national delegate experts from our project network.

University in Asia: Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh
Dr. Khabir Uddin kindly shared with us his recent research results with World Bank on Sustainability Index on Rural Sanitation with Respect to Environmental and Behavioral Changes.

To read more click here

Introduction of a new publication, “Bioindicators of POPs – Monitoring in Developing Countries” by Dr. Shinsuke Tanabe (invited speaker at the symposium in Manila on 7 November) and Dr. Annamalai Subramanian

A book entitled Bioindicators of POPs – Monitoring in Developing Countries authored by Prof. Shinsuke Tanabe and Prof. Annamalai Subramanian of Ehime University, Japan has been published jointly by Kyoto University Press, Japan and Transpacific Press, Australia. The book has been designed primarily as a broad treatment of the topics that may be useful for all those who are involved in the monitoring of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) in developing countries. Even though there are many books containing chapter(s) on the usage of bioindicators for measuring different pollutants, this is the first book that is exclusively dedicated to ‘bioindicators of pollution by POPs’.

To read more click here

UNU News and Events
UNU Symposium in the Philippines on 7 November 2006

UNU project on Environmental Monitoring and Governance in the Asian Coastal Hydrosphere has held a symposium every year. This year’s symposium will be held in Manila on 7 November, 2006, with its title as “POPs in Asia: Its Status and Future.” It is open to the general audience. Advanced registration is required. Registration form is available from here.

UNU-GIST workshop on Oct. 31 - Nov. 2 2006

UNU-GIST will host the 4th workshop on Environment and Sustainable Development, Oct. 31 - Nov. 2 2006, Damyang Resort, Damyang, Korea. For more details please visit the website.

UNU-International Course 2007

The next year’s UNU-IC information will be updated soon.

UNU Event Report

UNU Conference on Man and the Ocean was successfully held in July 2006. The video footage of the conference is available from here.

External coming events

Aisa-Europe Environment Forum will host Combine or Combust! Co-operating on Chemicals and Hazardous Substances Management

Brussels, Belgium, 30 November-1 December 2006

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For previsous issues, please see Newsletter Index
Edited by Michelle Bene and Fukuya Iino

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This newsletter is a quarterly bulletin made possible with the support of Shimadzu, Japan