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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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