I hope you will enjoy the new format of our Greenlines. As members, you can look forward to short news briefs from our international community and feature stories that bridge the challenges of environmental auditing. Thank you to our colleagues at the U.S. GAO, who have led the work to reinvigorate this newsletter. They welcome comments and suggestions regarding the new format. I am pleased to welcome three new Steering Committee members- Cameroon , Indonesia, and Sri Lanka–and two new WGEA members–Turks and Caicos Islands, and Uganda. The WGEA now has 53 members.
Johanne Gélinas Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development Canada
Read More...Costa Rica—Like many countries whose economies depend heavily on agriculture, Costa Rica must ensure that the pesticides used to improve crop production do not pose unacceptable risks to human health and the environment. Recent audits by the country’s Contraloría General de la República (CGR), howev…
Read More...I hope you will enjoy the new format of our Greenlines. As members, you can look forward to short news briefs from our international community and feature stories that bridge the challenges of environmental auditing. Thank you to our colleagues at the U.S. GAO, who have led the work to reinvigorate this newsletter. They welcome comments and suggestions regarding the new format. I am pleased to welcome three new Steering Committee members- Cameroon , Indonesia, and Sri Lanka–and two new WGEA members–Turks and Caicos Islands, and Uganda. The WGEA now has 53 members.
Johanne Gélinas Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development Canada
Costa Rica—Like many countries whose economies depend heavily on agriculture, Costa Rica must ensure that the pesticides used to improve crop production do not pose unacceptable risks to human health and the environment. Recent audits by the country’s Contraloría General de la República (CGR), however, have raised serious questions about these risks, and have pointed the way to needed improvements in the way the nation’s Ministry of Agriculture regulates pesticides.
With products as varied as pineapple, chayote, manioc, ferns, bananas, coffee, melons, and sugar cane, Costa Rica has one of the most diverse agricultural export industries in all of Latin America. In 2004, Costa Rica exported $2.015 billion in agricultural products, representing 32.4% of total Costa Rican exports. Agricultural activities also accounted for 14.3% of the nation’s employment. Yet the country’s heavy reliance on agriculture has resulted in heavy use of pesticides. According to the World Health Organization, in the last ten years, Costa Rica’s average rate of agricultural pesticides use has increased more than any other country in Central America and the Caribbean.
The Costa Rican Constitution guarantees every citizen the right to life, health, and a healthy and ecologically balanced environment. Yet without proper government regulation, the negative impacts of agricultural pesticides could contribute to both low agricultural yields and high risks to human health and the environment. Consequently, through a required pesticide registration process, the Ministry of Agriculture is charged with ensuring the soundness of pesticides entering the market. The Ministry is also charged with ensuring proper and efficient use of pesticides already in use through the appropriate training for farmers and other growers, and through inspections that help to ensure that pesticide residues in vegetables and other agricultural products are at levels safe enough for human consumption.
Given the economic and environmental importance of agricultural pesticide use, the CGR recently evaluated the Ministry of Agriculture’s efforts to register and control the use of synthetic pesticides for agricultural purposes. In addition, the CGR evaluated procedures to monitor and control the presence of pesticide residues in vegetables. The audit resulted in two reports that found serious problems with the Ministry of Agriculture’s efforts in these areas (available at http://www.cgr.go.cr) Among its key findings:
The CGR made a number of specific recommendations to the Ministry of Agriculture on methods to strengthen controls over the process for registering pesticides, including eliminating the practice of allowing companies to provide information from previously-registered products. In addition, the CGR made specific recommendations to the Ministry for improving its pesticide inspection process, including developing additional and stronger criteria for testing vegetables for the presence of pesticides. The CGR suggested that the Ministry of Agriculture confiscate and destroy vegetables that contain pesticides residues that exceed the allowed limits for human consumption, and perform effective follow-up with farmers to prevent future problems.
Since the completion of the audit, the CGR has been working to convince governmental authorities to strengthen policies and controls related to pesticide use. As a result, the Ministry of Agriculture is currently in the process of developing National and Sectorial Plans to decrease the use of pesticides in the country. Using guidelines set by the Food and Agricultural Organization and the World Health Organization, the Ministry is attempting to establish stricter regulations for the registration and control of pesticides across Costa Rica. This must include requiring that all the necessary tests be completed to assess pesticide quality and risks to the environment and public health in order to register a pesticide. Also, as a result of the audit, the Ministry says that it has stopped the practice of registering pesticides using information from previously-registered pesticides. These and other promised actions by the Ministry will be tracked and verified by the CGR.
The results of the audit generated a national discussion among farmers’ associations, consumer leagues, public authorities, Congress, and others about the use and control of pesticides in Costa Rica. As a result of its experience with this issue, the CGR suggests that other SAIs may wish to examine their public institutions’ efforts to protect human health and the environment. This experience also confirmed for the CGR the important role that SAIs and environmental auditing play in providing policymakers with independent, fact-based reports and recommendations on important issues that so deeply affect the welfare of their nations’ citizens.
Dear INTOSAI WGEA Members and other readers,
A year has passed since becoming the Auditor General of SAI Finland and the Chair of the INTOSAI WGEA. This year has been a great opportunity for me to lea…
INTOSAI Working Group on Environmental Auditing (WGEA) aims to increase the expertise in environmental auditing and to enhance environmental governance with high-quality contribution and visibility by both members of the Working Group and non–member SAIs. Currently INTOSAI WGEA consists of 85 member countries.
