RI TO HOST BASEL CONVENTION PARTIES' CONFERENCE

Denpasar, Bali, June 21 (ANTARA) - Indonesia will host the Ninth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Basel Convention, at Nusa Dua, Bali province, from June 23 to 27, 2008.

The conference is expected to be attended by 1,000 participants, including around 30 ministers, from 170 countries.

Indonesia's Environmental Affairs Minister Rachmat Witoelar in his capacity as president of COP is scheduled to officially open the conference.

The conference will discuss five issues, nsmely waste handling, legal aspects of waste import bans, strengthening cooperation with other related conventions, regional cooperation in strengthening the Basel Convention's position, and holding a world forum on waste management related to human health.

As an archipelagic country located strategically Indonesia is prone to smuggling and illegal shipment of hazardous wastes.

The conference is expected to yield an agreement on cooperation in and regulation on transboundary movements of hazardous wastes and waste disposal in the respective countries.

The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary
Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal is the most comprehensive global environmental treaty on hazardous and other wastes. The Convention was adopted in 989 and entered into force in 1992.

It has 170 member countries (Parties) and aims to protect human health and the environment against the adverse effects resulting from the generation, management, transboundary movements and disposal
of hazardous and other wastes. Indonesia ratified the Convention in 1993.