Stop Wildlife Poisoning

Instead of banning carbofuran in agriculture, the EPA  has banned residues on food. I hope we can use this to make a change in Kenya! Check out this press release

EPA Issues Landmark Decision to Prohibit Deadly Pesticide Carbofuran Residues on Food

Decision Will Improve Human Safety and End Poisonings of Birds

(Washington, D.C. – July 24, 2008) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced a proposed decision that residues of carbofuran, a toxic pesticide that is used on a variety of crops, will no longer be allowed on food.  This effectively means that carbofuran will have to be removed from the U.S. market, benefiting consumers and farm workers, as well as birds, which are frequently poisoned by the deadly chemical.

“This is a huge victory for the environment. EPA is to be congratulated for taking such decisive action to eliminate the dangers posed by carbofuran,” said Dr. Michael Fry, American Bird Conservancy’s Director of Conservation Advocacy. “This decision is based on overwhelming scientific evidence and sends a clear signal to manufacturers that it doesn’t pay to fight the cancellation of products proven to be harmful.”

The move by EPA is the latest in a long battle to halt all uses of carbofuran (sold under the trade name Furadan). In August of 2006, EPA announced its intention to cancel carbofuran registration due to hazards to birds, other wildlife, and people. However, carbofuran manufacturer FMC Corporation is pursuing a court battle so that it can keep selling the pesticide. This is the first time in twenty years that a pesticide manufacturer has fought cancellation of a registered pesticide.

EPA also announced that following the revocation of food tolerances, it will continue to pursue cancellation of the product. By revoking all food tolerances, it has the effect of speeding its removal from the market. In addition, the decision applies to imported food, which will help eliminate the use of carbofuran in countries that export rice, coffee and bananas to the United States. The decision will go into effect following a public comment period and the issuance of a final notice by the agency.

“EPA’s revocation of tolerances for residues of this toxic pesticide is urgently needed to protect America’s public health, and it will have enormous benefits for America’s wildlife and birds as well,” said Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife.

Carbofuran is one of the most deadly pesticides to birds left on the market. It is responsible for the deaths of millions of wild birds since its introduction in 1967, including Bald and Golden Eagles, Red-tailed Hawks, and migratory songbirds. In its 2005 ecological risk assessment on carbofuran, EPA stated that all legal uses of the pesticide were likely to kill wild birds. If a flock of mallards were to feed in a carbofuran treated alfalfa field, EPA predicted that 92% of the birds in the flock would quickly die. EPA analysis has also confirmed that carbofuran is a threat to human health through contaminated food, drinking water, and occupational exposure.

In 2007, the deliberate misapplication of carbofuran by a Colorado farmer killed over 2,200 migratory birds, including Mourning Doves, Horned Larks, Western Meadowlarks, Red-Winged Blackbirds and Common Grackles. The farmer pleaded guilty in federal court for violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Other incidents of bird poisonings by carbofuran are documented in the Avian Incident Monitoring System (www.abcbirds.org/aims) operated by American Bird Conservancy in cooperation with the EPA and state and federal wildlife agencies. In addition to killing birds when used legally, carbofuran is often illegally used in poison baits intended to kill wildlife in agricultural areas and grazing lands. This abuse has resulted in the deaths of raptors including Bald and Golden Eagles.

American Bird Conservancy, Defenders of Wildlife and other conservation and worker protection organizations campaigned for many years to have carbofuran removed from the market. The groups heralded EPA’s decision to cancel registration of the chemical in February 2008 as a clear victory for the environment. Groups supporting the cancellation include: American Bird Conservancy, Alaska Bird Observatory, Archbold Biological Station, Beyond Pesticides, Bird Conservation Network, Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, Endangered Habitats League, Friends of Dyke Marsh, Hampshire Bird Club, Massachusetts Audubon Society, Minnesota River Valley Audubon Chapter, National Audubon Society, Natural Resources Defense Council, Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides, Pesticide Action Network North America, Riveredge Bird Club, Seattle Audubon Society, Taku Conservation Society, Tennessee Ornithological Society, The Endocrine Disruption Exchange, The Institute for Bird Populations, Virginia Society of Ornithology, Washington Toxics Coalition, Wildlife Center of Virginia, Wisconsin Society for Ornithology, World Wildlife Fund, Xerces Society, Maryland Ornithological Society.

More details about EPA’s announcement are available at http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/reregistration/carbofuran/carbofuran_noic.htm.

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American Bird Conservancy (ABC) is the only organization that works solely to conserve native wild birds and their habitats throughout the Americas. ABC acts to safeguard the rarest bird species, restore habitats, and reduce threats, while building capacity in the conservation movement. ABC is the voice for birds, ensuring that they are adequately protected; that sufficient funding is available for bird conservation; and that land is protected and properly managed to maintain viable habitat. ABC is a 501(c)(3) membership organization that is consistently awarded a top, four-star rating by the independent group, Charity Navigator.

Defenders of Wildlife is dedicated to the protection of all native animals and plants in their natural communities. With more than 1 million members and activists, Defenders of Wildlife is a leading advocate for innovative solutions to safeguard our wildlife heritage for generations to come. For more information, visit www.defenders.org.

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Hi. I recently got the opportunity to get an introductory overview of the situation of pesticides in Kenya using the case example of Nairobi City. Communicating to a specialist and key figure at Consumer Watch Kenya, a leading organization in Kenya that fights for better quality and safety of products and services for Kenyan consumers, I got to confirm our fear as conservationists that all is amiss as far as pesticide use, distribution and legislation is concerned. The specialist gave a sorry impression, based on the findings of their organization and agreed with me that indeed it was time, to use her words, ‘we joined dots(medicine, wildlife, agriculture, and others)’ to confront and deal with the situation.

Basically, the scenario witnessed is unauthorized pesticides, including those banned or severely restricted in developed countries being found in Kenya. In addition, these together with others are found to occur at high levels that deem them toxic to man. This information is in a report by Kenya Organic Agricultural Network and can be found on Consumer Watch Kenya’s website at www.consumerwatchkenya.org .Disturbing issues from the report include:

• There are only 16 banned/restricted pesticides in Kenya currently, despite the fact that Kenya is a signatory to major conventions and protocols that deal with Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) e.g. Rotterdam Convention, Montreal Protocol, Stockholm Convention among others.

• Of the 85,000 synthetic chemicals available worldwide, many are carcinogenic and damage the brain, the nervous and reproductive system. Many of these may leave residues in or on crops and on environment with potential exposure to human beings (and if I may add to wildlife and therefore the entire biodiversity is at risk).

• Following random selection of purchase sites for vegetables in Nairobi city, the test results on the purchased vegetables were shocking in 10 out of the 15 pesticides detected, exhibiting higher levels than those reflected by EU as healthy for the consumption. These include 2 banned organophosphates (Parathion and methyl parathion).

It follows without doubt that man and animal as well as environment at large face heavy toxicity confrontation from pesticides. It is only cooperative responsibility that can sort us out of this mess.

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Tags: conservationists, Consumer Watch Kenya, persistent organic pollutants, pesticide

While Endosulfan is hitting headlines with majority public hatred outcry in Philippines, Carbofuran is hitting headlines with informed minority hatred outcry- those who have seen and know the devastating implications not just to wildlife but also to humans.

But Endosulfan’s effects are witnessed in the exceptionally high prevalence of birth defects among children in Asia. The region adjoining the Plantation Corporation’s cashew plantations in Kerala’s Kasaragod district highly suspected to be linked to the Endosulfan pesticide. May be we are waiting for the same for Carbofuran (Furadan). Furadan’s direct effects to humans are only inferred or better stated, are latent amongst its victims. This is primarily because the poisoning goes on at mild levels in humans hardly attaining the threshold lethal limits to cause immediate death. This is mostly through eating poisoned wildlife and known in this case is the eating of poisoned birds. The birds are eviscerated immediately, but even this is done in a haphazard way and cannot be said to be absolutely free of direct contamination from the bait that killed the bird. These subjects however continue taking the chemical over time and cumulatively. Therefore, there must be effects, may be even deaths. Further, these contamination cases are not documented and there is therefore no data to support this. Contrary to the undetectable case in humans, the effects are obvious in the animals that we so crudely poison with the Carbofuran-carnivores, birds, herbivores etc.

Either way, the link between Endosulfan and carbofuran is that both are pesticides. In addition, both are being hailed deadly toxins in our environment. Well, another striking similarity is that both are wreaking havoc in their areas of use but those with the powers to oust them in these areas are reluctant, not that the evidence is lacking but most likely the chemical product boosts the agricultural productivity of an area/region/country but yet again monetary income is grande and some of the investors may be the ones having to stand and effect the ousting of the chemical, a challenging and self-crucifying move. But what is better than saving the entire biodiversity and man? Well in the end such a move remains the noble one.

The simple, uninformed “wildlife poisoners” cling on to Carbofuran because it is an ultimate killer, the same reason for which they should abhor it. But even they have identified it as a way to improve their status on richness scale: the carnivore killer’s dream is to own a larger herd; the bird hunter wants his supply to be larger. To both, Carbofuran will do the magic. It is all in the quest for affluence.

It is disturbing to realize that most effective chemical poisons bear a curse which is that they are NOT POTENTIALLY POISONOUS (AS SAID OF ALL CHEMICAL PESTICIDES), BUT ARE JUST POISONS! I wish it were otherwise.

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Tags: bird, carbofuran, Carnivore, Endosulfan, furadan, herbivore, poison, Wildlife

Hi, I am back from field. No poisoning encounters during my short trip to Machakos in eastern Kenya. I am yet to get down to Mwea. Only through a phone call yesterday, I was briefed by a friend that carbofuran poisoning is on as always. ‘The people of Mwea cannot resist the ducks’, my informant jocked!

As part of Wildlife Direct’s campaign against carbofuran, we wish to come up with supportive statistics of human cases of intoxication by carbofuran so that we try to win Kenya’s Ministry of Public Health’s support in the campaign against carbofuran.

Two sites have been identified so far where humans are eating birds killed through carbofuran poisoning. These are Mwea and Bunyala irrigation schemes in Eastern and Western provinces of Kenya respectively. There are allegations by laymen from Mwea that when you feed on the carbofuran-poisoned ducks, you feel a sensation described only as ‘weak knees’ after the meal, which clears up shortly after (nervous disfunctioning?). They add that continued regular feeding on the poisoned birds eventually kills the people who fancy the poisoned birds’ meat. $ 600 is required to get someone to these two sites to:

1. Interview the people who subsist on the poisoned birds and,

2. To obtain human neurotoxication (relating to nervous disfunctioning which might suggest effects of carbofuran) data from nearby health centres and,

3. Gather similar data from health centres whose surrounding population is not exposed to carbofuran-poisoned wildlife for their subsistence for comparison with data in where individuals are eating carbofuran-poisoned birds.

The more the evidence we gather against carbofuran, the bigger our alliance becomes. This then accredits more the appeal by Dr. Richard Leakey to barn carbofuran in Kenya and increases the chances of this conservation appeal being heeded.

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Tags: carbofuran, poisoning, Richard Leakey, Wildlife Direct

In Isiolo and Maralal districts of Kenya, whose inhabitants are mostly pastoralist communities, carnivore-domestic livestock encounters are known to occur virtually on a daily basis. The local Borana, Somali and even Turkana lament of crippling losses of their livestock. Initial conversation with these people gives one the impression that they only look on and cannot do much. This was during my survey in the region in May 2008. My conversation soon grew cordial with three pastoralists at the local livestock market and in a matter of time, they opened up. They revealed using a sugar-like, medium grained, crystalline substance. They apply this on the killed goat, sheep or cow before laying it out as bait mostly to lions and hyenas. While doing this, they cover their mouths and noses and ensure they are upwind because they say the substance is lethal even when just inhaled.

I have never seen strychnine in my life but from reading a little and what I have heard one local conservationist say, this would be my guess. But strychnine is categorized as a highly restricted chemical. Indeed the pastoralists admit the chemical is much scarce nowadays but those who use it to poison carnivores claim that they either steal it or get it through ‘backdoor’ means.

The neighbouring Meru people to Isiolo district are predominantly crop farmers. These use furadan as a pesticide on their crops. I however also observed that the Somali, Borana and Turkana are embracing crop farming. I talked to a few in the small vegetable and maize-cultivated plots in the seasonal wetlands. They said they have welcomed the practice as fashion. I could not however stop feeling the imminent surge of carnivore mortality catastrophe. Crop farming practice is likely to lead to the discovery of furadan. With enlightment and through experiment, the nematicide could soon assume the role of an effective carnivore poison as has been observed in other places such as Kajiado district.

Many factors against carnivore survival are in play here: strychnine (if I am right it is strychnine) is in effect as carnivore poison; livestock predation stands at high rates; and soon furadan may be discovered and be used in wiping out the carnivore community whose members are all suspect of being behind the livestock killings by virtue of being carnivores. Progressive biodiversity loss is happening here when you read Simon Thomsett’s revelaton when I shared with him my findings, “…You have stepped onto an old battle field. You see no bodies, hear no guns. Yet a whole environment has collapsed 20 years before. The whole of Isiolo, from Lewa, Meru, Embu, Samburu, Shaba, Ol donyo Sabache, Wamba, Mathew’s was my old hunting ground back in the late 1970s and early 80s. I returned back in 1992-95, but saw a shadow of what I rembered. It had all been poisoned. I lived in Ol Donyo Sache (Ololokokwi) for 7 years, not a shamba in site…….but poisoning was routine. Note the loss of vulture colonies all the way through Laisamis to Marsabit. You see the cliffs, you see the shit, but you see no vultures.” Only that this time the poisoning may get even more severe and accelerate the extirpation of the much reduced predator/scavenger numbers, much less than Simon saw, “…they have far less to kill today.”

What is the wisest thing a man would do if he walked home and found another shooting at his wife and children with a pistol with limited number of bullets? It then occurs to him that a machine gun is in his main house with numerous rounds of ammunition. If God spares your family this time, would you still risk having the machine gun in your house which in the first place you no longer use because the traumas of the war in which you used it made you vow never to use it ever again?

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Tags: strychnine

Hi, I am Martin Odino. I just joined Wildlife Direct to coordinate and work with WD’s Furadan Task Force. I have been collecting information on furadan use, distribution and legislation of the chemical in certain parts of Kenya and the local regulatory agency respectively. I am still collecting information on furadan use, cases of its abuse (dominated by deliberate poisoning) for puposes of documenting the current scenario as concerns the chemical’s significance to biodiversity conservation efforts. Kindly share with me such information on the email address: martinchael@gmail.com. This will be greatly appreciated and will go a long way towards contributing to the advocacy for our animals faced with the risk of furadan poisoning.

The following is a real tale of the mastery that furadan has assumed through empowerment by man to enslave and kill biodiversity from my last survey in May 2008.

The Bunyala irrigation scheme is a source of livelihood to natives of Bunyala in Busia district,Kenya. The rice growing irrigation scheme is also particularly attractive to birds which come to feed on the cereal and other lifeforms that come with the flood waters. At least 98 species of birds are recorded in and around the irrigation field. Other wild biodiversity seen during my four day survey includes wild cats, monitor lizards and snakes.

Though a focal point for the struggle for life sustenance by two obvious forms of biodiversity -man and birds, another latent scenario becomes apparent when you walk through the irrigation field and pick up carcases of the latter.Bait in form of rice grains laced by furadan are behind these deaths.

Just a few hundred meters from the irrigation field, in some homesteds of people generally regarded as bird hunters, captive Open-billed Storks are tethered to reeds, pegs or even on some poles in the houses. These subjects were baited using snails with furadan. They were then quickly given water which spared them from death but condemned them to captivity. These captive storks are used to raise alarm calls to conspecific individuals who then fly down to them. Meanwhile the hunters have scattered about the calling storks molluscs(snails) which have furadan skillfully put in the snails’ shell cavities while still leaving the snails in the shells. The in flying storks get distracted by the snails about their captive coleague and settle on the easy,ready meal oblivious of the killer furadan in the baiting snails’ shells. In a few minutes, the graceful birds lose their gait, becoming disoriented in movement and their flight ability is totally impaired. The eager hunters then come upon them with sizeable sticks to maim the individuals that are still strong before collecting their catch for sell to the waiting l0cal market.

But the poisoning work of furadan does not end here. Some very lucky birds manage to escape into the bushes or even fly (for smaller-sized species) to low trees. There is evidence of undisposed, dicomposing, escapee birds on low trees, in bushes and on the grass plains. But just how many of these runaways and carcases are not eaten by other predators and scavengers?I hope none, though I know there are at least some that are eaten and with the furadan still potent in their crops, the predators and scavengers also end up being poisoned.

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I’ve been reading about wildlife poisoning in Africa and can’t help feeling that we need to do something really urgently. After our Stop Wildlife Poisoning workshop we issued a press release and were surprised to read that the Kenyan officials as well as pesticide producing/marketing company were denying the dangers of these toxic chemicals, and were abdicating their role in dealing with the misuse of these chemicals for poisoning wildlife. Even our Wildlife Authority, the Kenya Wildlife Service are ignoring the issue. Dr Leakeys call for a ban on Furadan has attracted some interest in the bloggosphere, but how serious does it have to get for the authorities to take action? Until we have only one lion left? One vulture? We can’t, it’s stupid, ignorant and totally ineffective to wait. We have to take action.

So, what are we doing?

1. We created a Stop Wildlife Poisoning Task Force which prepare a strategic action plan that will address the legal and policy issues, enforcement, education and awareness, as well as conservation and wildlife conflict issues. We are taking this issue to the highest level of government folks!

2. We need to raise funds so that we can have one person dedicated to coordinating this work. We currently have a small grant from IFAW that will enable us to conduct some work, and I have already made a donation of $300 towards this cause. We need to raise another $6,000 to keep this project alive until the end of the year. This will enable us to focus on gathering data and writing grant proposals so that like the Endangered Wildlife Trust in South Africa whose poison campaign which is supported by The Tony and Lisette Lewis Foundation has funded the Endangered Wildlife Trust’s Poison Working Group (PWG), we can attract regular support apart from the blog.

Please make a donation today to enable the Stop Poisoning Wildlife Task Force to get to work on ending the poisoning of wildlife in East Africa.

Thank you

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I’m collating information on incidents of use of carbofuran and other poisons to deliberately or accidentally kill wildlife in Kenya, to develop a database that can be used as evidence in the debate on whether carbofuran should be controlled / banned in this county, and as a permanent catalogue. If you know of any poisoning incident that may have involved carbofuran or other poisons, in any part of Kenya, could you please contact me at jophieclark@googlemail.com.  I am interested in any level of information, ranging from anecdotal reports to cases that have been confirmed by laboratory testing.  Confidentiality and data ownership will be respected. Jophie

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Ngaio is right that proving wildlife mortalities are caused by the legal use of Furadan must be a strong legal argument for banning it.  There was a tragic incident of rare Angolan black and white colobus monkeys in Diani, Kenya, being accidentally poisoned recently by a carbamate.  This was first reported by the Colobus Trust on the PAWI blog on Facebook. Part of the work that the Colobus Trust does is to provide veterinary care to injured primates.  On the 8^th December 2007 they were brought two dead colobus monkeys, with no obvious signs of injury.  One was an adult male & the other was a pregnant adult female. The Trust suspected poisoning so took stomach content samples to the government chemist in the nearby town of Nyali. The chemist reported back that the samples tested positive for the presence of a carbamate group. Apparently a nearby hotel used an insecticide on their bourganvillia to prevent greenfly infestations. The Trust concluded that the colobus must have eaten the leaves of the sprayed plants and ingested enough chemical to kill them.  It makes me wonder how often this has happened before in the area?  The colobus population in Diani is on the decline, mainly due to loss of habitat, and does not need an additional source of mortality that could so easily be avoided.

 Jophie

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Hi, this is Ngaio again. 

Thanks to everyone for their comments and research. I think a few major issues are emerging here.

First and foremost, there is the issue of whether or not wildlife mortality and endangerment to human health have arrisen from legal (or labeled) useage or from illegal use. If it arises from legal use then FMC definitely has to take responsability for that.  Now, strictly speaking, the company is not responsible for individuals using carbofuran illegally, but they are knowingly manufacturing a highly toxic compound that is being purchased to poison wildlife, not just for agricultural purposes. We are talking about numerous incidences that are decimating wildlife populations, not just one or two isolated cases. If FMC had andy sense of corporate responsability they could launch an education campaign and carry out a proper risk assessment relevant to Africa to establish various toxicity levels to the species likely to be exposed. But would an effective education campaign then result in a decrease in their sales? And might a risk assessment reveal the risks to wildlife?

Howard, you made a good point–I completely agree that we need to back up our claims with some good, hard science. We cannot afford to be emotional on this one, it’s too easy to tear down emotional arguments. It would be very useful to see what sort of hard data FMC has. I was interested to read Jophie’s post regarding the claim that a hippo would have to consume 300 to 500 kg of carbofuran at once to die. Is this on the basis of toxicity tests carried out on hippos or surrogate species who would respond similarly? What dose level would this correspond to? To make some headway, we will need to be able to clearly establish that a) the animal was exposed to carbofuran in x formulation, b) the exposure to the carbofuran was the predominant or only cause of death and c) the level of exposure was consistent with a legal / illegal application.

Another issue is the root cause of the poisoning: human-wildlife conflict. As Dipesh says, it’s going to take more than banning a compound (or suggesting a ’safer’ alternative) to make the problem go away. Colleen, I thought your point about promoting more harmonious and equitable farming practices was very relevant. It’s certainly necessary to encourage people not to take matters into their own hands and go after a lion that has killed some of their livestock, for example, but it is also critical to take steps to minimise livestock losses in the first place. An audit of farming practices, crops and use of pesticides would likely reveal the occasions when pesticides are used, but not actually necessary. I’ll have a look through the list you sent and see about contacting some of the groups.

I guess the thing that strikes me the most, at the moment, is the argument that carbofuran does not pose an ‘unreasonable’ risk. This is a chillingly ambiguous term. Are we to believe that the wildlife and human health incidents noted up to now are ‘reasonable’ risks then? Who is setting this threshold?

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