Stop Wildlife Poisoning

Category: carbofuran | Date: Jul 28 2009 | By: Martin Odino

Dear readers,

Thank you for reading, commenting and donating on this blog. We are also very thankful to the CBS 60 minutes for their recent video and story on sunday, 26/07/09. Please keep supporting us to bring an end to the gross and harmful poisoning of wildlife.

While I prepare to get to the ground to continue with my project in Bunyala, I have reason to worry that the situation on furadan poisoning has not gotten any better but just got worse by going underground. I am troubled by the closing paragraph at the end of the CBS story that:

“After our story aired, FMC announced it would recall Furadan from stores in Kenya and stop all sales in the neighboring countries of Uganda and Tanzania. But a random survey last month found that while Furadan was no longer on the shelves in Kenya, it was still available in Uganda and Tanzania, where lions are also disappearing.”

Earlier on (July 15th, 2009), I got this communication of the Furadan situation in Eldoret:

“Am in Eldoret briefly and wanted to let you know that quite a few shops still have Furadan on the shelves. One shopkeeper told me that that even though they know it is being withdrawn, that the distributors are still selling it…

Picture from this morning attached

What should we do with this information?”

Further, yesterday, I also got a call from my ground assistant that bird poisoning is still on in Bunyala.

Honestly, linking these three episodes leaves a lot to be desired. The email communication did not specify the suppliers of the toxic pesticide and our attempt to follow up on the same have been futile. However, CBS reports that “FMC, declined 60 Minutes’ request for an interview but said in a written statement that Furadan is important to the sustainability of agriculture in Kenya. They said that the labels clearly illustrate its proper use and that they condemn the illegal use of their products to kill predatory wildlife.” We know FMC announced their withdrawal of the product from Kenya and East Africa but seemingly they still stress on the chemical being of agricultural importance to kenya.

The situation in Bunyala is worrying because crop production is unreliable and the prevalent drought and famine have not made it any better. Well, people may just eat more birds…furadan-poisoned….and may be the the drought may end up killing their livestock before they turn to them!

It appears there are no prospects of intervention by the relevant titans in the immediate future as concerns stricter regulation or a possible ban of the product. There is therefore need to echo our call of urgency to all well-wishing stakeholders, particularly nations affected by ‘our crude poisoning technique’.

Particularly, as concerns birds, the populations impacted on are not just Kenyan but also from Eurasia - Europe and Asia at large - and a number of African countries. This is because the phenomenon of birds’ movements involves migrations affecting up to long-range migrants. This means that only Australia & New Zealand and the America’s bird populations are not affected but even then, cases of vagrants occurring in our region are not uncommon and lately they have been on the increase possibly because of the greatly changed environmental conditions.

At the moment, Southern African migrants are around. I have seen the Southern Pochard, the Madagascar and the White-throated Bee-eaters. A couple Wahlberg’s Eagles have also arrived early possibly following their inborn cues but the usual rains that hail their coming are not on. Nonetheless they are here. Numerous Palearctic migrants are still about: Ruffs, Marsh Sandpipers, Common Sandpipers and Woodsandpipers are around on our water bodies and the irrigation schemes. The Furadan poisoning bird poacher’s list is toped by waterbirds and these constitute the majority of what I have shortlisted. In my data collection of poisoned birds, I have Ruffs, Marsh Sandpipers, wood Sandpipers and Green Sandpipers. No doubt the list is lacking.

A classic example of why we need your kind support by commenting, donating or even greatly publicizing your greatly declined birds some of which I may have Iisted above given the fact that some of the migrating birds that end up being poisoned here in Kenya may be critical or endangered in their native breeding countries. The Ruff for instance already is suffering from its contracting range in Europe due to land drainage and increased fertilizer use. The greatly migrating population coming to get poisoned in Africa, in Kenya, just compounds their declines. The bird is listed in African Eurasian Waterbirds Agreement (AEWA) waterbirds. The countries that are members could make noise about this problem facing the bird that the host country does not seem to be taking responsibility. The following are poisoned sandpipers and ruff, either disoriented or already dead from baiting by Furadan.

It is sad that many species of migrants die in large numbers as compared to the resident bird species because the residents have learnt over time of this method working against them. Even with the knowledge, these subjects do not go free and lose many of their own but progressively avoid the baits with time. On the other hand, migrants arrive hungry and in anticipation of food to fuel their movement down to South Africa then again back North on their return journey and they seem utterly unaware of the poisoning thereby losing more of their own at the poisoning sites compared to the residents.

In one month’s time, Eurasian bee-eaters and a numerous waders will be here constituting early arrivals from Europe and Asia. The little input to this campaign will go a long way to ensure that if at all any should die, then just a few would have to die from the saddening poisoning using Furadan.

Technorati : AEWA, Bunyala, CBS, FMC, Furadan, Poisoning, Wildlife

Tags: AEWA, Bunyala, CBS, FMC, furadan, poisoning, Wildlife

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