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Environmental organizations from the Philippines, Thailand, Hong Kong, Indonesia, and Taiwan convened on May 5 for the International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN)’s D-Tox Session. The event was held in an effort to address the toxic waste issues in the Southeast Asia (SEA) region through citizen science.

A strategic tool using data analysis, citizen science helps equip communities affected by toxic waste issues with the information to exercise their rights to a healthy and safe environment. 

IPEN’s D-Tox Session started in 2020 as a virtual platform for its partner organizations in Southeast and East Asia. It offers an online capacity-building platform that helps POs up their performance.

One of the resource speakers, Jam Lorenzo, Policy and Research Officer of environmental watchdog BAN Toxics, spoke about citizen participation in research and development in the Filipino artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) communities.

“BAN Toxics has been working with the ASGM sector for more than a decade, and what this has taught us is that we need to recognize community expertise and knowledge in conducting research as a valuable resource that helps us to understand situations more clearly and allows us to work more closely with communities,” said Lorenzo.

BAN Toxics is a non-profit, non governmental organization mandated to promote sound chemicals and wastes management. Founded in 2006, the organization was established to respond to urgent waste and chemicals issues in the Philippines. Today, BAN Toxic’s work in the grassroots include capacity building programs for ASGM communities.

Alongside BAN Toxics attending the session was CitizenScience.Asia, EARTH Thailand, ECOTON Indonesia, Interfacing Development Interventions for Sustainability (IDIS) Philippines, Taiwan Watch Institute, and Greeners Action Hong Kong. This D-Tox session was organized by IPEN, with the help of CitizenScience.Asia, Ecological Alert, and Recovery Thailand, and EcoWaste Coalition.

*Cover Photo/Thumbnail Photo from Ban Toxics