Nestled along the Adriatic Sea, Montenegro is a country rich with rugged mountains, glacial lakes and beautiful limestone peaks. Although these fruitful ecosystems have been around for millennia, they are continuously exposed to external threats, including chemical and waste pollution, which threaten both environmental integrity and human health.
To address this issue, align itself with European Union regulations and achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, Montenegro is now adding a new commitment to its list of chemicals and waste management initiatives. In partnership with the Chemicals and Waste Management Programme of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the government is promoting sound management through a new project that will strengthen implementation of several key international treaties on chemicals and waste.
Challenges hindering progress
The Montenegrin government is committed to improving the management of chemicals and waste, in order to prevent or reduce the risk to people and natural resources. Despite its efforts over the past decade, several challenges still hinder its progress.
A lack of sufficient infrastructure and resources makes the treatment, disposal and recycling of waste difficult. This is compounded by the country’s sparse, often rural population being spread across mountainous terrain. This further contributes to an insufficient number of waste treatment facilities in the country.
Communication hurdles also inhibit data-sharing between sectors, and public awareness around the risks of improper chemicals and waste management is also lagging behind. There is thus little public support for proposed or implemented chemical and waste management initiatives.
Filling the gaps
Montenegro has already taken steps to address these gaps and improve the country’s chemicals and waste management. The government created a National Strategy for the Management of Chemicals and an accompanying Action Plan, in place from 2019 to 2022.
The country is a party to the Basel, Rotterdam, Stockholm and Minamata Conventions, protective UN instruments that protect human and environmental health from hazardous chemicals and waste. However, it has yet to properly implement these conventions, so the project aims to build Montenegro’s national capacity to properly implement and improve the synergies between them at the national level.
Along with developing and endorsing relevant policy documents, Montenegro is working to create a more coordinated approach to chemicals and waste management through capacity-building and awareness-raising activities. Montenegro is also in the process of establishing a national reporting mechanism facilitate its fulfillment of reporting obligations towards the relevant conventions.
With UNEP’s support, Montenegro will close legislative gaps and encourage information exchange, data collection and reporting, and multi-sectoral cooperation. The project will also improve social sustainability by increasing public awareness among target groups, including laboratories, dentists, consumer associations, companies for waste transport and the scientific community. Furthermore, the project will build the capacity of stakeholder groups in the civil society sector, creating skilled partners in policy processes on chemical safety.
The government of Montenegro hopes the project will emphasize its will to protect its people and environment from hazardous chemicals and waste and act as a true catalyst for improved public health and environmental safekeeping.
For further information please contact the Special Programme Secretariat at unepchemicalsspecialprogramme@un.org.
