Service Contract No 2007 / 147-446 Strategic ... - Swaziland

annual release of these toxins are expressed in units of grams toxic equivalent per annum(gTEQ/a). These releases may be to air, water or land.The Stockholm Convention makes a distinction between “intentional production and use” ofPOPs and “unintentional production”. The unintentional production of POPs falls underArticle 5 of the Convention, more specifically relating to PCDD/PCDF (Polychlorinateddibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans), HCB (Hexachlorobenzene) and PCB (Polychlorinatedbiphenyls). Sources of PCDD/PCDF, HCB and PCB include open combustion of biomass.Countries have to take measures to reduce the total releases derived from anthropogenicsources on the chemicals listed in Annex C of the Convention (i.e. PCDD/PCDF, HCB andPCB), “with the goal of their continuing minimisation and, where feasible, ultimateelimination”. Swaziland has to develop and implement an action plan to that effect.Swaziland has prepared a PCDD/PCDF Inventory (Mathunjwa, 2009) and is in the process ofpreparing its NIP. The PCDD/PCDF inventory for Swaziland identifies open combustion ofwaste as the main contributor of unintended generation of POPs, accounting for 86% of totalemissions (most of which were associated to rural areas). The second source of emissions issugar cane burning, accounting for 8%, with other subcategories contributing less than 1% ofthe total.For the calculations the Inventory considered a total area of burnt cane of 50,400 ha(2006/07 data), and an average density of trash and tops burnt of 17.5 t/ha 53 , giving a total of882,000 t of burned biomass in 2006. The PCDD/PCDF Inventory gives a production of9.261 gTEQ/a. This estimate makes use of the UNEP (2005) emission factors of 0.5µg TEQ/tof released into air and 10 µg TEQ/t for releases onto land. Thus out of the 9.261 gTEQ/a,95.2% are releases onto land and the rest into the air.These estimates considered the until-recently scenario, where 100% of the fields practicedBurnt Cane Harvesting (BCH), i.e. around 52,000 ha.Various factors – economic, technical, social, and environmental – intervene in decidingwhether to harvest cane green or burnt. These are summarised in Table 15 below. In thecase of Swaziland BCH is the standard practice, although the added value of tops and trashas fuel for co-generation of electricity is producing a shift in preferences by the sugarcompanies. Future pressure may result from policy commitments to reduce the emission ofPOPs from cane burning in the context of the NIP to the Stockholm Convention.53 This estimated density of biomass was obtained by the consultants from empirical data from the Philippines (Mendoza etal, 2002) and is consistent with data from Ubombo Sugar. The UNEP Toolkit suggests another emission factor based ontonnes of sugar produced which, if applied, gives total emissions significantly lower. Nevertheless, since the density ofbiomass used in the inventory is consistent with empirical evidence in Swaziland, we consider it a better approximation.RDMU (Strategic Environmental Assessment of the National Adaptation Strategy) - Page 88