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by Camilla Reed, Reuters

Officials at the Basel Convention, part of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), told Reuters on Wednesday that environmental crime, like the toxic waste trade, was escalating and posing a threat to developing nations.

Basel Convention legal officer Bavel Suian told Reuters by telephone from the organisation's headquarters in Geneva, "we are in the process of preparing a Memorandum of Understanding and formalising the cooperation between us and Interpol."

"The cases are becoming more complicated and the dangers to society more evident," Suian added.

By working closer together Basel and Interpol would get to know of more cases and be able to act faster. Basel Convention technical director Pierre Portas said they were seeing "only the tip of the iceberg" in toxic waste trade cases reported to them.

The Basel Convention on the control of movements of hazardous waste was adopted in March 1989 after a series of toxic cargoes from industrialised countries provoked world outrage when they were dumped in developing nations. In a recent case, Taiwanese petrochemical giant Formosa Plastics Corp shipped 2,700 tonnes of mercury-laced waste to the port of Sihanoukaville in Cambodia.

The company initially denied the material was toxic but later said some of it was slightly tainted with mercury. It has since taken it back. Over 400 million tonnes of hazardous waste are generated each year, according to UNEP, but the size of illegal shipments remained to be quantified.

Portas said "our main concern is what we don't see. There is no fall in the illegal traffic of hazardous waste."

"We presume that organised crime is behind it...We fear we don't hear too much about it because it is much like the illegal arms or drugs trade," he said.

Traditionally it was not part of Interpol's remit but more and more environmental crime was coming to light, Suian said.

In 1995, parties to the convention adopted a ban on the export of hazardous wastes from industrialised to developing countries. Since then the Convention has been working on lists to decide which materials are hazardous and which are not.

"The issue of distinguishing waste from non-waste is a legal and technical issue because it carries a political, social, cultural and economic dimension," Portas said.

For some time the secondary metals industry has argued that the convention is a restriction of the free trade principles of the Treaty of Rome as hazardous wastes for recycling or re-use, not just for disposal, will be banned.

"As far as the Basel Convention is concerned its primary aim is to protect human health and the environment from the adverse effect of hazardous waste," Portas said.

"It is not aimed at facilitating trade but at hampering it... The UN has as its duty to protect the most vulnerable countries," he added. But the recycling sector says some materials on the lists are wrongly classified as hazardous waste. Banning them hindered developing nations' economic growth as they bought them instead of more expensive virgin raw materials.

Portas said only a small amount of materials remained to be classified but there were still some problems with the status of secondary raw materials. The ban will enter into force when 62 of the 117 nations signed up to the convention ratify it. To date 12, including the European Union, have signed, Portas said.

"We are not disappointed by the numbers so far...because a de-facto ban is already in operation," he said.