I. Who can participate in a primary inventory?

• Representatives of non-governmental and other organisations, local residents, high school pupils can participate in a primary inventory of stockpiles of obsolete, unusable and banned pesticides

• It is recommended to involve competent specialists, representatives of local authorities, utilities and environmental militia into groups of public representatives.

• A group (commission) should incorporate persons who do not have relevant medical contraindications. It is prohibited to involve young children into inventory works.

• If local authorities refuse to:

• conduct a primary inventory of stockpiles of obsolete pesticides at a territory under study;
• provide official data to the public on presence/absence of stockpiles of obsolete pesticides;
• co-operate with a local initiative group, that conducts a primary inventory,
• such facts should be documented and accompanied by relevant comments in a field work records.

II. What items are necessary for conduction of primary inventory works?

• In the course of inventory works, the group leader should have all necessary documents in his/her possession, including regulations of NGOs - project participants

• In the course of inventory works, the group must have:

• a first-aid kit;
• necessary protection gear: rubber gloves, protective glasses, a flu mask or a respirator;
• appropriate footwear.

• In the course of inventory works at a site it is prohibited:

• to drink, eat and smoke,
• to remove protection gear.

• After completion of inventory works it is recommended to perform common sanitary procedures

 III. How should one identify a survey route?

• In the course of survey, the following information materials should be used:

• official data on delivery and application of pesticides and agrochemicals, including statistical data, information of agricultural departments, forestry facilities, trade facilities, local agronomic departments;
• data of governmental State of Environment Reports, environmental monitoring newsletters and yearbooks of the Russian Hydrometeorological Committee;
• information of local residents.

• Surveys should follow a selected route, reflecting sequence of studies to be carried out.

• In the course of a survey/inventory, sites under survey should be marked at a relevant area map, collected data should be recorded in special reporting forms, to be later used for compiling documentary reports.

• In order to understand a survey area better, one should use maps, schemes and area plans with marked settlement borders, water protection zones (including sanitary protection zones of water supply sources and water mains), protected territories, forest parks, recreation zones, etc.

IV How should one collect information in the course of primary inventory works?

• In order to collect information in the course of site surveys, the following methods should be used:

• field observations (specific packaging, labels and marking at packaging materials, specific odour around a site under study);
• conclusions made by specialists and invited experts;

• In the course of inventory works, one should record (check) available data on types of pesticides stored, their amounts, storage capacity of the site surveyed.

• If a site is not officially registered, it is necessary to assess:

• amounts of pesticides at the site;
• quality of pesticide packaging;
• marking and manufacture dates at he packaging (or the lack of);
• environmental impacts of the chemicals stored (traces of fires, contacts with soil or a water body, scattered chemicals at the site area).

• In order to assess unidentified chemicals or chemicals needing re-packaging at facilities that are not officially registered, obsolete pesticides should be sorted out by the following categories:

• pesticides in undamaged packaging and marked;
• pesticides in undamaged packaging and without marking;
• pesticides in damaged packaging and marked;
• pesticides in damaged packaging and without marking;
• pesticides in heaps;
• mixed pesticides.

 V. Producing a group inventory report

Based on findings of inventory works, a group should produce a report, incorporating the following information:

• a schematic map of identified illegal storages or storage facilities with obsolete, unusable and banned pesticides and agrochemicals;
• a general description of sites, where these chemicals were found (proximity to human settlements, water bodies/facilities, areas under agriculture use, etc.);
• the overall amount of the chemicals identified;
• the list of individual chemicals and their amounts (if it is possible to make such breakdown due to available marking);
• proposals on reduction of adverse health and environmental impacts of these chemicals

VI. How should one use findings of the primary inventory?

• Findings of inventory works should be disseminated among relevant executive bodies, local authorities, and residents.

• A public initiative group, that participates in primary inventory of obsolete pesticides, should be informed by executive bodies and local authorities on measures taken in response to findings of the primary inventory. For example, according to the Technical Guidelines on Inventory, Identification, Collection and Storage of Obsolete and Banned Pesticides (131), at the base of primary inventory works, the following chemicals should be rejected without further analysis of their composition and properties: 1) wizened powders, dusts, pastes that cannot be used for their intended purposes; 2) concentrated emulsions, water-soluble concentrates, concentrated suspensions and oil suspensions with sediments, that cannot be mixed, dissolved and recovered as homogenous mixtures; 3) mixed pesticides that cannot be applied in a mixture (e.g. if herbicides are mixed with fungicides and insecticides). In all other cases (e.g. in the case of unmarked packages, scattered and unidentified mixtures), it is necessary to take samples of unidentified chemicals and identify presence of components that define conditions of further storage or neutralisation (e.g. POPs, mercury-containing disinfectants, magnesium chlorate, etc.).

• Findings of a primary inventory may provide additional data for official inventories of stockpiles of obsolete, unusable and banned pesticides and agrochemicals;

• Findings of a primary inventory may be used for public or governmental environmental assessments and development of programs/projects for environmental protection and environmental security.