Baraza

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Apr 30 2008 | By: admin

The press have been very interested in the concerns raised about carbofurans in Kenya. This article appeared in the Kenyan newspapers today and based on interviews, we expect more  in coming days.

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2 responses so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Apr 28 2008 | By: admin

Dear all, we have just put out this press release as an outcome of the meeting on Friday. Please circulate widely.

LEAKEY CALLS FOR BAN ON CARBOFURAN AS WILDLIFE POISONING REACHES ALARMING LEVELS IN KENYA

The Mara Conservancy has alerted authorities after finding five hippos dead and observing paralysis in four lions which fed on one of the hippo carcasses. Toxicology reports on one of the hippo carcasses and a lion both tested positive for carbofuran, an extremely toxic agricultural pesticide. Further investigations have revealed that traces of carbofuran were found in areas where the hippos were known to graze.

The sick lions were first reported on the Mara Conservancy Blog on April 15^th and followed carefully by the rangers. Brian Heath, CEO of the Mara Conservancy later stated: “The first report came in three days post-ingestion where a lion was found to be weak, staggering and sitting under a thicket. Another young male from the same pride began showing similar but more severe paralysis and quickly became recumbent by the afternoon. This was followed by a lesser degree of paralysis of two more males during the next five days. Tissue samples together with stomach content from the euthanized lion were submitted to the Government Toxicology Lab. The results showed that the stomach contents of the hippo and lion tested positive for Carbofuran.”

Incidences of poisoning represent a critical threat against Kenya’s wildlife particularly through the use of Carbofuran. The chemical is extremely toxic, cheap and easily available. Dr. Richard Leakey, Chairman of WildlifeDirect.org is urging the government to ban the use of Carbofuran: “We are appealing to the Kenya government, the importer, Juanco SPs, the agrochemical association of Kenya, and the Pest Control Products Board to go the way of Europe and USA and ban the importation, sale, distribution and use of this deadly chemical in Kenya. We believe that there are significant human health concerns and environmental risks associated with using this chemical which is widely abused because it is easily available over the counter from any Agrovet.”

Concern in Kenya was first raised in the 1990s when the chemical was reported to have caused the death of huge numbers of ducks and other waterfowl near Ahero (Western Kenya) and Mwea (Central Kenya) rice schemes. Poisoned waterfowl were then sold for human consumption. Discussions ensued between ornithologists from National Museums of Kenya (NMK), KWS representatives, the manufacturer of Furadan (FMC Corp), local manufacturers (AgroEvo E.A. Limited), regulatory authority (Pest Control Products Board), and the National Irrigation Board (NIB) who managed the rice schemes.

Responding to the recent alarming reports of poisoned wildlife, Dr. Richard Leakey convened a meeting with over 40 stakeholders on 25^th April 2008, where eight presentations by conservation organizations and scientists showed the alarming cases of poisoned wildlife. One study confirmed that the chemical is also being used to catch fish in Lake Victoria.

Several cases of intentional use of carbofuran to kill predators have also been reported to the Kenya Wildlife Authorities. Earlier this year, conservation group, the Lion Guardians reported a case of two lions intentionally poisoned in Kajiado, Kenya. Poisoning is not only decimating Kenya’s lion population which is estimated to be mere 2,000 individuals but also scavengers birds such as vultures and other birds of prey. In 2004, 187 vultures died as a result of just one poisoning incident. Raptor specialist, Simon Thomsett believes, “that if the current level of usage continues, it is possible that two different species of vultures in Kenya could go extinct within the next ten years.”

Carbofuran is an agricultural pesticide sold in Kenya by Juanco SPS as Furadan, but is being widely abused especially by pastoralists. Exposure to the chemical, over stimulates the nervous system causing nausea, dizziness, confusion, and at very high exposures (e.g. accidents or major spills), respiratory paralysis and death. Despite the fact that carbofuran is banned in Europe and as of January 2008, the US Environmental Protection Agency has determined that all products containing carbofuran generally cause unreasonable adverse effects on humans and the environment, and are ineligible for re-registration, the Kenyan Pest Control and Products Board deny that the chemical has adverse effects on humans and wildlife.

WildlifeDirect and other conservation groups believe that banning the use of the chemical would only be one step to addressing the problem. “In addition, the KWS needs to find mechanisms that create incentives for communities to live in harmony with wildlife.” states Head of Conservation for WildlifeDirect, Dr. Paula Kahumbu.

Editor’s Notes:

· Carbofuran is widely available and cheap throughout Kenya. It is regulated through the Pest Control and Products Board (PCPB) which lists it as an agricultural chemical without any warning of its lethal toxicity (only the very concentrated form of Carbofuran is restricted like other poisons).

· Wildlifedirect.org a charity based in Kenya was founded by Richard Leakey who envisioned the need for alternative sources of wildlife conservation funding to save Africa’s rich wildlife heritage when tourism fails. Online micro-donations are received in response to conservation blogs to support field conservationists. The website hosts over 50 blogs in nine African countries, giving field conservationists a voice, and allowing donors to directly support and participate in conservation. 100% of donations go to the cause that is supported by the donors.

· The Mara Conservancy Trust is a non-profit company, was established in January 2001 to manage and protect the wildlife of the Maasai Mara Conservancy. The day to day management of the conservancy is documented in a blog: http://maratriangle.wildlifedirect.org.

Some Known Cases of Poisoning in Kenya

· November 2007: near Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, Isiolo District a camel that had been killed by lions was subsequently laced with Furadan by local pastoralists with the aim of killing predators that came to feast on the carcass. The result was the death of at least two lions and fifteen vultures collected in the immediate vicinity of the carcass. Also recently near Lewa, a group of nine lions from the nearby Samburu reserve were poisoned, five of which died along with significant numbers of birds of prey and other scavengers.

· In April 2005 the poisoning of at least 30 vultures occurred near Athi River.

· In March 2005 a breeding Mackinder’s eagle owl was a victim of secondary poisoning after eating dying mousebirds that were poisoned with Furadan by farmers near Mweiga, Nyeri District.

· In April 2004 the largest known incident of vulture deaths in Kenya occurred near Athi River when 187 vultures died as a result of Furadan poisoning. The hardest hit species were white-backed vultures, but Ruppell’s griffon and lappet-faced vultures also perished. A large portion of the resident hyena population was also wiped out.

· Further, an MSc student working on his analytical project on effects of Furadan, analyzed samples collected from the feet of a dead vulture in Laikipia and found Furadan compound; a likely case of secondary poisoning.

For additional information please contact:

Brian Heath, Director, CEO, Mara Conservancy Trust – bheath@triad.co.ke or +254 734 225378

Dipesh Pabari, Communications Manager, WildlifeDirect –

dipesh@wildlifedirect.org or +254 733 989082

More information on the use of Carbofuran against wildlife is available on WildlifeDirect’s Baraza Blog.

For high resolution photographs and footage, please contact Dipesh Pabari

Tags: 220, 453, 664, 714, 736

9 responses so far

Category: Poisoning wildlife | Date: Apr 28 2008 | By: admin

The ‘Stop Poisoning Wildlife’ meeting on Friday was very productive. I would like to thank all those who made donations towards the meeting and a special thank you to IFAW who also contributed. We had many more participants than we’d anticipated with almost 50 attendants - including representatives of many government agencies, conservationists, and members of the Agrochemical Association of Kenya, and three people from the company that imports Furadan, Juanco SPS.

Richard Leakey opened the meeting and reminded everyone that WildlifeDirect was only facilitating the meeting and that he wanted an open and honest forum for discussion where we all speak the truth without fear. He noted that he had been able to buy Furadan over the counter for purposes of killing wildlife and questioned whether it was adequately controlled in Kenya given it’s toxicity and danger. He wanted to discuss the impacts of Furadan on humans, livestock and wildlife, to determine if it is a problem, and if so how it could be banned.

The presentations that followed shocked us all. Laurence Frank from Living with Lions who told us that the poisoning of lions in retaliation for predation on livestock was decimating Kenya’s lion population which was estimated to be only 2,000 individuals. He reminded us that African s have always lived with lions and had ways of managing predation, but that simple economics rule; killing lions with Furadan was cheaper and more effective in the long term than building a strong holding ground and deploying dogs.

Dr. Frank advocated a complete ban on Furadan and severe penalties for crimes, as well as implementing an economically viable incentive based system for those pastoralists who do live with lions. The representative from Juanco, the importer of Furadan, was understandably defensive and questioned Dr. Franks evidence that Furadan was being used against lions in Laikipia.

Simon Thomsett who first raised our attention to the problem of wildlife poisoning, showed a very moving film about the poisoning of vultures in Athi River in 2005 some of which is on this blog.

Martin Odino from the National Museums of Kenya revealed results of a study that showed that the distributors of Furadan had little understanding of the legislation and regulatory body the Pest Control Products Board and showed that toxicology results proved that predators other ‘pests’ in Kenya were being targeted using Furadan. He suggested that it was difficult to get information from either importers or the PCPB. The PCPB representative and Juanco staff were again on the defensive insisting that nobody had come to them with information or had asked for meetings and blamed the scientists for failing to validate their results.

Dino Martins then talked about how Furadan is being used by fishermen in Western Kenya by pouring it into the lake and collecting fish as they came to the surface. These poisoned fish are filleted and marketed locally.

This system of fishing is not new, traditional herbal poisons have been used before, but the use of Furadan for this purpose is new. He showed data that suggests that it happens on a daily basis in some places, and that the local population is at risk of poisoning.

Although Juanco and the PCPB admitted knowledge of this, they denied that Furadan was the pesticide of choice and said other herbicides were much more frequently used for poisoning fish.

Then Peter Otieno of Maseno University revealed that he had conducted research and toxicology tests on vulture feet and beaks that had died after eating a carcass, and proved that carbofuran was the cause. Juanco and the PCPB questioned his methods.

The room was filled to capacity

Dr. Asuka presented results of tests conducted on the hippos and lions that recently died in the Masai Mara. She presented government chemist reports that state that they found Furadan in the stomach samples, as well as on natural vegetation and soil in the area. Once again Juanco and the PCPB challenged the results even though this was from a government chemist, and said that its’ impossible to detect a brand (Furadan), you can only detect the chemical carbofuran – it’s like naming a brand of milk in a sample, instead of saying you detected milk. I wondered why the government chemist would indicate Furadan unless there was no other source of carbofuran in Kenya. The Juanco SPS representative however claimed that carbofuran could have come from a number of sources. When asked which other sources and the proportion of carbofuran in Kenya from Furadan vs other products, they refrained from answering.

The defensive response from the agrochemical industry, Juanco SPS and the PCPB was not unexpected yet some of the members of the meeting were not happy about it. They wanted the industry and government to admit that there is a problem and to be a willing part of the solution. Many of us were surprised that such a toxic chemical can be available over the counter without proper controls or clear warnings about its toxicity. The Juanco people insisted it was an international system.

Two speakers helped us to think about a way forward. Munir Virani from the Peregrine Fund drew parallels with the situation in India where a painkiller drug was outlawed after it was shown to be the cause for massive vulture die offs.

It was important that we all remained impartial through out the meeting if we were to make any progress. Tim Snow from the Endangered Wildlife Trust who traveled from South Africa reminded us that the way forward was in a partnership with the industry and regulators. He told us that 16% of wildlife poisoning incidents in South Africa are due to carbofurans. They have a telephone hot line and have a chemical crime forum at the EWT which is funded by the chemical industry. He advised us to address the bigger issues of regulation of all Class 1A pesticides. In South Africa these are treated differently.

A number of productive conversations took place over lunch and the afternoon session of working groups resulted in a series of actions that will be implemented by a task force over coming weeks. Today Richard Leakey has spoken to the press and is calling for complete ban on the use of carbofurans in Kenya. This he says is in line with what is happening in USA and the EU.

I’m sure that this task force will have an interesting time in trying to find a solution that works for the industry and wildlife. We will keep you updated through a blog dedicated to this issue called Stop Wildlife Poisoning which will be launched this week.

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8 responses so far

Category: Poisoning wildlife | Date: Apr 17 2008 | By: admin

The more I learn about the poisoning of wildlife the more shocked I become. I have been learning about the poison Furadan. So, what is Furadan? Furadan is the marketed name for carbofuran and is used to control insects in a wide variety of field crops, including potatoes, maize and soybeans. It is a systemic insecticide, which means that the plant absorbs it through the roots, and distributes it throughout its organs where concentrations are attained that are deadly to insect. Carbofuran can also kill insects on contact.

Have you ever seen such an ugly molecule?

Carbofuran has one of the highest acute toxicities to humans of any insecticide widely used on field crops. A quarter teaspoon can be fatal! Applications of this chemical should be in closed systems where it makes not contact with the skin. However, in Africa it is widely available in powder form and is applied by lay people mostly peasant farmers by hand resulting in much direct exposure to the chemical. The chemicals toxicity is due to its activity as a cholinesterase inhibitor (it is thus considered a neurotoxic pesticide). Read this story about a lady who watched the aerial application of carbofuran and see how it may have destroyed her life.

Though intended for insect and soil pests, carbofurans like Furadan is highly toxic to mammals and birds and has been used purposely to target predators and birds in Africa, USA and UK. A single grain will kill a bird and birds usually eat numerous grains of it mistaking it for seeds. They die after a short painful reaction. Before it was banned by United States Environmental Protection Agency in 1991, granular carbofuran caused millions of bird deaths per year in USA. No wonder there is a huge controversy over the possible reversal of the ban on use of Furadan in USA.

Tags: 220, 314, 46, 713, 805

14 responses so far

Category: Poisoning wildlife | Date: Apr 09 2008 | By: admin

During the last few months we have been astounded by the number of cases of wildlife poisoing that is going on in East and southern Africa. It looks like there is an increasing use of the Carbamate-based pesticide Furadan which is sold for agricultural purposes. This class of pesticides is deadly for mammals and is used to directly poison predators, and this has been decimating our lion, hyena, vulture and other wetland bird populations. The manner in which these animals die is horrific.

The toxin is easily available and is fairly cheap to purchase requiring no special permits despite it’s toxicity. A few weeks ago the first documented case of murder was recorded in Kenya where a young man poisoned his own father. He has escaped arrest by fleeing! These toxins are not only threatening wildlife but people too. Controlling or stopping it’s use is compounded by a lack of public awareness about risks associated with use of this pesticide, impacts on useful to wildlife or alternatives to predator conflicts.

We are faciliatating several of our bloggers in looking for a solution - these include lion guardians, Simon Thomsett, the Endagered Wildlife Trust of South Africa, Asuka and The Northern Rangelands Trust .This video was made by Simon Thomsett You need to watch it, but I should warn you, it has some disturbing images.

This film shows a typical scene when an animal is baited with poison and then eaten by hyenas and vultures. Hundreds of vultures died in this incident, it’s the sad brutal reality of what his happening in Africa.

Friends, I hope you agree with me, we just can’t sit back any longer and watch our wildlife being poisoned. We insist that all a signatory to the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD), like the Government of Kenya have a responsibility to put an end to this wanton poisoning of wildlife. WildlifeDirect is calling together a number of organizations, institutions and individuals in Kenya that are involved in conservation, control, investigations and/or research to discuss how we can stop the poisoning of wildlife.

Actions We are Taking at WildlifeDirect

We have organized a meeting on 25th April of stakeholders from Kenya and south Africa to discuss the problem and develop a strategic action plan to tackle the Furadan poisoning problem.

The meeting will take place at 9.30 am at our offices in Nairobi - Timau Plaza, 7th Floor, on Argwings Kodhek Road (opp. Yaya Centre). If you can’t come but would like to participate please send us your concerns, views and any information on the following

1. Evidence of poisoning

2. Types of poisons used, species affected, locations

3. Information on other ongoing efforts to stop poisoning (public education, legislation, enforcement, conservation)

4. Advice on how we can finance this.

Any donations made on this blog will be used to enable this meeting to take place to enable participation of attendees from remote corners of Africa. We are trying to raise $2,000 to pay for one South African expert, and for transport for those coming from out of town Kenya, refreshments, and for distribution of information.

My dream is that we can address the education and cultural issues, the legislation and enforcement, monitoring and investigatins, as well as the rehabilitation and conservation of poisoned animals. We need practical approaches to stem this. For example in England one can call a free number to report poisoning

0800 321 600

Woudn’t it be nice to have one in every African country with a mechanism to respond to all the reports?

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2 responses so far

Category: Emergencies | Date: Apr 08 2008 | By: admin

As I sit smug in Shanghai on leave where I am visiting my sister-in-law and her family, I can’t help but anxiously surf the web at odd hours in the night. Kenya is back on the headlines: Breakdown in Kenya Coalition Talks writes Nick Wadhams for Time and CNN. Yesterday, there was a fresh outburst of protests and demonstrations in Kibera, the largest slum in Kenya and Kisumu my hometown and stronghold of the opposition. The slogan has changed slightly: No, Raila, no peace. No cabinet, no peace…”

It always seems much worse than it is when one is so far away from home. News has a way of doing that so I scan through one of the main Kenyan blog aggregators reaching for sense and sensibility. Zimbabwe and Kenya seem to be merging in the African cyber landscape. Mugabe lost but he isn’t going to step down so easily and Kibaki’s party, the PNU is certainly not going to give equal space to Odinga’s opposition.

And as always, only the innocent will suffer. How do we keep allowing ourselves to be ruled by despots; by people who show no consideration whatsoever for the consequences of their actions the world over? Will it ever change?

A music video is circulating the internet having been censored by the Kenyan media mob. What more can we do but sing for in pain and sadness for our homelands…

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9 responses so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Apr 02 2008 | By: admin

One of the many things I respect Dr. Richard Leakey for is that his entire career has been a struggle for truth, justice and equality for all living creatures including the ones that deserve it the least - us humans. Most people outside of Kenya will know Dr. Leakey and his family for their commitment to palaeontology. Three generations of patient digging has contributed to our understanding of human evolution.

And of course, within the wildlife context, Dr. Leakey is internationally acclaimed for putting an end to the elephant slaughter in Kenya more than 20 years ago. It saddens me terribly to think that the recent spearings in the Amboseli region might be a sign that these senseless killings are creeping back in.

In Kenya, however, Dr. Leakey is a household name for his relentless struggle for good governance, and justice. During the bad old days of the Moi regime (sadly it seems the bad old days are still with us even though Moi is not), Dr. Leakey was made Head of Civil Service to try and help clean up what was considered as one of the most corrupt civil services in the world. In 1995, he formed the Safina Party in opposition to the corrupt government and received several beatings (literally) and death threats for all his efforts.

And the fight goes on. As Chairman of Kenya’s Transparency International, he and many others yesterday stood up to tell the government that we just won’t tolerate the possibility of creating over 20 more Ministries in Kenya! In a press conference yesterday, Dr. Leakey told Reuters, “It is of grave concern for a country that sustained extensive economic losses…to consider a bloated cabinet that would cost Kenyans an estimated $64 million annually.”

Meanwhile two other true great leaders and a number of civil activists were downtown at Uhuru (freedom) gathering to march to parliament with a letter demanding that there should be No More Than 24 Ministers. Nobel Prize winner

Professor Wangari Maathai whom you will all know for efforts to promote conservation and women’s rights and Maina Kiai, one of our greatest human rights activists started the demonstration with a symbol of peace and sensibility by planting a tree on Freedom Corner. I feel ashamed as a Kenyan not to have been there but fortunately my sister, Mine Pabari and good friend and photographer Georgina Goodwin (thanks for getting the pictures amidst being tear gassed Georgie!) as well as fellow activist and co-founder of Awaaz, Zahid Rajan were amongst the sadly tiny section of middle class representatives who are sick to their stomachs of being ripped off by our politicians.

And suprise, suprise, our competent police force responded to a peaceful tree planting session by tear gassing everyone! Well, as my sister wrote on our blog, they have actually furthered the cause by getting the story strewn across every media outlet in the world and front page in all of Kenya’s papers!

I guess the point is that our fight here in Kenya is not for one thing or another. It cannot be just for the animals or just for human rights or just for the environment. And having great examples like Professor Wangari Maathai and Dr. Richard Leakey, as well as others such as Maina Kiai and Muthoni Wanyeki (who both head Human Rights Organisations) makes me wonder why there are not more of us Kenyans who are out there on the streets or in there in cyberspace fighting for equality for all.

As Samuel Beckett says, “I can’t go on…I will go on…“

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4 responses so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Feb 29 2008 | By: admin

Yesterday was meant to be another day of demonstrations and mass protests across Kenya. But instead there was a ray of sunshine…

Are we finally moving forward?

It’s a giant step for politicians…

let’s just hope it will be a giant step for us Kenyans too!

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5 responses so far

Category: WildlifeDirect news | Date: Feb 18 2008 | By: admin

I have had an interesting time monitoring all the new blogs and the variety of comments that are coming in. The amount of interest and the suggestions we’re getting on comments are enormously encouraging. I realise that there’s so much more we can do with the power of so many minds. Thank you all for your your contributions it’s so invigorating to hear from you.

Today is a sad but happy day for several reasons.

First, I had the pleasure of meeting Gwili from the Colobus Trust. It was a happy meeting - I discovered he’s Welsh and not from some as yet to be identified African tribe! Such a strange name! He updated me on the situation at the Colobus Trust where the tourism collapse has had a devastating impact on the income of this small charity - which I actually started in 1997! Yes, it was! And it was my brother who designed those crazy arboreal colobus bridges to enable these spectacular black and white monkeys to cross the highway safely. The good news is that the number of monkeys killed by vehicles is now negligible.

The sad news is that more than twenty colobus and fifty other primates are electrocuted every year on high voltage cables serving this touristic area. The Power company has promised to insulate the cables, but are demanding that the Colobus Trust pay for the materials. In my mind, that’s retarded and I think we should write to those guys and demand that they act a bit more responsibly.

The second bit of sad news was from a new blogger, the Maasai Wildlands - While training Douglas I was shown photos of children covered in flies. The flies were in the children’s noses, eyes and mouths. I cant imagine how they breathe without swallowing those dirty creatures! I could see the diseased eyes in at least one of the children. It made me realise just how lucky I am that I have a good clean supply of water at my home. I showed them the playpump system which is so brilliant! I hope that the funds raised through the Maasai Wildlands blog will help to bring clean water to the Maasai children.

And another piece of sad news, William Deed, our in house blogger who helped create the Gorilla Protection Blog, trained Atamato, Diddy and Innocent, has now left us. We will forever be indebted to Will for his amazing insight, expert online networking skills and his dry humour. Below is Will and Diddy checking out photos for the gorilla blog in December last year.

The good news is that he hasn’t gone far - he will be working from the Mara Triangle to help with the emergency fund raising campaign. As you all may know, we are trying to raise 150,000 dollars for the Mara Triangle to help them through this extraordinarily difficult period. Brian Heath, the CEO of the Mara Conservancy came in to pick up Will and to update Richard Leakey on the situation on the ground. They ended up recalling stories about an earlier discussion on the future of the Mara and about Brians Serval cat kitten!

It feels like a long day but we’re only just getting started. I am energized because more than 20 bloggers received donations last week (thank you everyone) and that means that things are looking up which is a great change for us living in Kenya where things have been so depressing lately. But for those who follow Kenyan politics the Koffi Annan mediated talks are progressing and despite some hiccups, there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel. “Harambee” as Kenyans say, “Lets pull together”.

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3 responses so far

Category: Emergencies | Date: Feb 13 2008 | By: admin

Recent posts on WildlifeDirect are very disturbing for conservationists. I also want to draw attention to several burning issues that we really need to work on if we are to make a difference in conservation in Africa.

The bushmeat trade may be an important source of protein and cash for communities living in and around protected areas. It is threatening many species such as the bonobo as revealed in the Lola ya bonobo blog today and in Ashley Vospers blog on Lomami. Some of our bloggers have said ‘it’s not a good day’ …hopefully by bringing you the facts from the ground, you will be better informed and able to make a decision about how to make a personal difference.

The importance of wildlife and natural resources to humans often causes conflicts. The charcoal trade in many parts of Africa, supply much needed domestic energy for cooking and heating. Through the ending charcoal blog we hope to find and test solutions to the use of charcoal in Congo, that can be applied anywhere in Africa. We are especially excited that this blog is a collaboration between two people in different continents who are working together! That is the spirit of community building that we are proud to promote.

We keep hearing stories about poison as a means of killing wildlife ‘pests’ and predators. We’ve heard about it in Kenya where it affects vultures, lions, elephants and primates, as well as in Uganda, Congo and southern Africa. In fact, the more we look the more we see. We have decided to do something about it so look out for a new blog on wildlife poisoning by bringing news from different sources to one place as a forum for discussion, for planning and tackling this cruel and deadly. And it’s not all bad news. In India, scientists and conservationists working with political and legal people were able to ban some of the most lethal drugs that were causing die-offs of vultures. We believe we can achieve it in Africa too.

Several of our bloggers have also revealed to us the scale of illegal wildlife trade that is going on in Africa. Trade in wildlife is sometimes for consumption, but is often for supplying the pet and ornamental trade like parrots, frogs, snakes, orchids, monkeys and insects in the west and Near and Far Eastern countries, as well as for commercial products and ornaments, (eg. Timber, ivory, rhino horn, insects and hippo teeth), medicine and pharmaceuticals, and we have heard that many primates are illegally traded for the biomedical research.

How does this happen when there are wildlife authorities in these countries both Africa and Europe and USA? Well, the business is worth billions, so “corruption” is a key word here. In addition, some countries are not members of important treaties like CITES the convention on trade in endangered species of wild fauna and flora. Some countries don’t have trained customs officers, and identifying some part of an animal, or a small frog is often impossible with out the right tool or training.

Sometimes illegal trade is going on right under the authorities noses – the official forms are filled correctly but with garbage information that nobody checks. For example, in 2005 Uganda allegedly legally exported over 1 ton of hippo teeth from wild sources – I doubt that Uganda doesn’t have enough hippos to provide this – it probably came from Congo where hippo populations have collapsed due to illegal trade.

Someone has to do something.

We can help those interested in ‘revealing’ what’s happening in order to raise attention in source and market countries. We will receive information through our normal emails and info@wildlifedirect.org, and post it to keep you informed. We’d appreciate your interest and action whenever there’s need.

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12 responses so far