FAO-GEF Partnership for Chemicals and Waste

Inappropriate use, storage and disposal of pesticides (and their containers) in agriculture pollute water and harm, or even destroy, ecosystems. The Global Environment Facility (GEF) is charged with financing the elimination of the most harmful chemicals, which are covered by the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants and the Minamata Convention on Mercury. The GEF also provides support to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer and the Global Framework on Chemicals (and its predecessor the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM)). Many of these chemicals, including highly hazardous pesticides (HHPs), endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), environmentally persistent pharmaceutical pollutants (EPPPs), glyphosate, micro plastics, neonicotinoids and others can be linked to agrifood systems. 

Agrochemical related water, soil and air pollution pose risks to the sustainability of agrifood systems and human, plant and animal health. This includes rising threats to soil biodiversity, water pollution, and food contamination. Agrifood pollution is increasingly recognized on a global level as a priority area of action. This includes the Global Framework on Chemical’s call to phaseout Highly Hazardous Chemicals by 2035 and the recognition of nutrient leakage, fertilizers and pesticides as the top pollution-related risks to biodiversity to be addressed in Target 7 (pollution reduction) of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.
Nature-positive and circular agrifood systems that prioritize pollution prevention can deliver multiple global environmental and socioeconomic benefits (including health, livelihood diversification, and the creation of new jobs). Through a sustainable bioeconomy, they can also support other highly polluting sectors in the transition to low or non-chemical inputs.

FAO has a long history of working with countries to address chemicals of concern in agrifood systems through the GEF. While FAO become a full-fledged GEF agency in 2006, FAO’s engagement in the Chemicals and Waste focal area began more than a decade prior, working with countries to address the sound management of chemicals and waste through the life-cycle management of POPs and obsolete pesticides.

FAO continues to support countries to develop the enabling environment for pollution prevention, with an emphasis on the adoption of nature-positive and circular approaches across agrifood supply chains. This includes improving policy and regulations to eliminate or reduce the use of hazardous chemicals and the adoption of improved production practices and low or non-toxic inputs, anchored in Integrated Production and Pest Management (IPPM), agroecology, and sustainable bioeconomy.