Stop Wildlife Poisoning

Category: carbofuran | Date: Aug 09 2009 | By: Martin Odino

A few days ago, I finished administering questionnaires and interviewing people in Bunyala about the issue of bird poisoning. Disturbing findings came up: vitually the entire population knows about Furadan and its toxicity yet majority of the immediate population at the rice scheme feed on poisoned birds; poachers say Furadan is banned but it continues to be available. I sought to know the poachers’ unanimous opinion on vegetable farming in exchange for bird poisoning as we had agreed they discuss (in May) and tell me what they thought but the few I met said birdmeat business seemed good again with the poison’s supply having increased and was not as scanty as it had been 2 months back. I just seem to have lost a would be band of converts who are crucial if poisoning is to be eradicated in Bunyala, thanks to increasing Furadan supply in the area! It means starting all over again which for the sake of lvelihoods, I am left with no other option.

The rice scheme fields are being ploughed in readiness for planting. Birds have started flocking in the fields and will reach peak numbers with the flooding of the paddy fields at planting time. It is even more worrying because the rice planting area has been expanded.

This field used to be left fallow during the previous seasons but is now being converted to be used for rice planting

Birds anticipating food bounty and a tractor ploughing in the distance

Poachers are therefore going to be more spread to poison as many birds as they can and are beefing up their stocks of Furadan for the season. It is disturbing that much as I was trying to focus on the interviews and questionnaires, harsh reminders of on-going bird poisoning kept coming up on the footpaths criss-crossing the villlage recidences. The doves below had dropped to their deaths on the path I was using, having been intoxicated while foraging at the irrigation scheme.

Finding the actual source of this pesticide in Bunyala has proven difficult because the chain of people involved is long and mysterious. I know one old man who supplies the poachers with the pesticide and it is alleged he gets the poison from the irrigation scheme. An interview with the man did not yield much information as he insisted on telling me more about his blacksmith venture, a genuine art but perfect masquerade for the pesticide underground deals he engages in. Further, my assistant got a 100g pack of Furadan from an official of the board who incidentally got this chemical through convincing or bypassing the person with the key to the store where the pesticide is stored. For some time, the fellow had been unable to secure the pesticide because the store key only has one custodianwho had been away for a while . No doubt the illegal pesticide’s blackmarket deals go on within the confines of the Bunyala rice board premises but it seems nobody heeds the call for the rice board supplies to be retrieved especially when they bear the trademark showing they are Juanco distributed and as far as I know, it is the same juanco involved with the buy back.

Keep reading on the worrying, regulation-ignored Furadan poisoning scene in Kenya

Technorati : Bunyala, Furadan, Juanco, Poacher, Poison

Tags: Bunyala, furadan, JUANCO, Poacher, poison