The Environmental Company of the State of São Paulo in Brazil (CETESB), also Stockholm Convention Regional Centre for Latin America and the Caribbean (GRULAC), is launching a five-year training programme promoting the environmentally sound management of persistent organic pollutants (POPs).

The project aims at strengthening the capacity of ten countries from GRULAC so as to comply with the obligations of the Stockholm Convention on POPs.

Each year and over a period of five weeks, the training will be structured around several technical modules, each of which targeting different professionals from decision-makers to technicians. The first course, taking place from 9 January to 9 February 2012, is divided into the three following modules:

1. Introduction to the environmentally sound management of POPs; 
2. Technical operations for POPs monitoring and sources of pollution relevant to the Stockholm Convention, 
3. Determination of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and organochlorinated pesticides in the environment.

Spanish is the official training language. This first year of training is expected to train 60 professionals from: 30 GRULAC participants, 15 Brazilian States representatives and 15 technicians from CETESB.

The International Training Course on Environmentally Sound Management of POPs is part of the Japan-Brazil Partnership Program (JBPP). This partnership provides trilateral cooperation to developing countries in GRULAC through the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC) and the International Cooperation Agency of Japan (JICA).

For more information about the International Training Programme, please consult: http://www.cetesb.sp.gov.br/