Stop Wildlife Poisoning

Category: carbofuran | Date: Oct 11 2009 | By: Martin Odino

Conditions are looking up for any life form with the onset of rains in Bunyala.

The local rice irrigation scheme which is esssentially the area’s industrial zone giving most people a chance to earn a penny is bustling with activity at the moment. And the rains have boosted foliage for livestock which are looking fine and birds at first sight are about abundantly and in their various kinds of course being the migration period.

The irrigation scheme

A healthy goat enjoying thorny foliage

Greenshanks finishing off their sleep in the early morning

A female Greater Painted Snipe stirring in the early morning

For weeks now, light drizzles have been gracing the evenings after the scorching tropical day time sunshine. A few days ago however, the rains came down unexpectedly in the morning hour shortly after 0600hrs forcing my assistants and myself to take cover by a roadside hut with the inhabitant(s) most likely sound asleep inside; a few minutes later, the showers subsided. The skies appeared dreary for a downpour and the sunrise rays even lit the east. We were headed for the furthest part of the study site so we did not mind getting a little wet from the slight drizzle provided we beatt time and poachers who are also early risers. Midway through our journey and the showers broke into a significant downpour, so we took cover at the irrigation board premises. We relaxed and watched through the rain not in any hurry any more. Afterall heavy rains meant no poisoning because of the need to economize on the cost of the poison (by the poachers)and the rains washing off the poison from the baits and the birds bowsing fresh rain water would just not maximizing on kills which meant wasted poison.

We took GPS points and made notes, occasionally chatting with the farmers in the rice scheme and enlightening them on this whole business of Furadan and poisoning. I was amazed at how informed some were. I had sought to find out if they had been supplied with Furadan to use in their cultivation plots having noted that they had already been given seedlings, part of the package that normally comes with Furadan. They said they were not being given Furadan this season because the pesticide was banned. They said they had been told that if the harvest was good who knows, some maybe exported!and what would be better news for the pheasant farmers. However they were told that the rice would not be accepted in the international market if certain chemicals were found in the export product; Furadan is one of these products that potential importers will be looking at and the chemical would be found if it is used in planting and tested at the export-import level. “So as long as we are the ones eating the foul cereal someone thinks it is alright!” Further, they said the government had banned it because it was being misused for poisoning lions.

The ‘New friends’ that we talked to. They are using oxen to ready paddy fields; a giant rake-like impliment is attached to the chain and drawn by the oxen along the water-filled plots to remove any debris in the ploughed, soggy earth prior to planting the rice

We upheld the hope of non-eventful bird poisoning incident as the day wore on. With evey one ticking minute and the prospect of a downpour later on in the day almost guaranteed that we would clock the coveted zero figure for bird mortality for the day!

When we were Just about to finish walking the last transect, a flock of Open-billed Storks stirred ahead. No doubt some poachers were rounding them up so that they fly on to their poison bait set up. With the stabilized sunshine after the morning rain the birds had embarked on intensive foraging. Gorging to satiate their hunger hoping to recover lost time while waiting for the heavily pelting rain to subside earlier on and probably trying to beat the immiently warning showers later on. The poachers knew better and took advantage.

Godwits feeding with heads immersed in water

Ruffs feeding in harmony their backs watched by the Curlew and Wood Sandpipers.

An African Spoonbill busy dabbling for food

Just in time for us to take off and avoid getting soaked by the rain, the poachers left the site with 12 Storks and numerous sandpipers

One of the poachers with his catch (poisoned birds) loaded on his back

As we also made off to camp we passed by a dead stork and a farmer’s cutlass and shoes, a sign that the action had been going on for some time before we arrived.

Usually the poachers will not let you take any of their bird for free no matter where the poisoned victim is collected from. This bird must have been a stray bird which in an attempt to get away from the assaulting poachers collapsed to its death in this lucky farmers plot out of its pursuers sight. Such is the case for many other birds of which not all are recovered. A wasteful, brutal technique poisoning is.

And so the days wear on.

Please keep reading.

Technorati : Bird poisoning, Bunyala, Lion, Poacher, Poison

Tags: bird poisoning, Bunyala, Lion, Poacher, poison

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Category: carbofuran | Date: Sep 22 2009 | By: Martin Odino

Dear readers,

I have been underground for a while! I mean to apologize but…. I am still on with the business of ending wildlife poisoning. I will be back soon with stories at my study site in Bunyala.

The blog title above not only rekindles hope that the remaining stocks of Furadan are now getting depleted but also confirms that FMC indeed upholds ethics by pulling off their supplies of the chemical as the only proper measure to follow lions’, birds’ and other biodiversity outcries of being decimated by carbofuran. And what else could be an affirmation than FMC executives’ words that indeed they have not supplied any Furadan to Kenya since August 2008! and an invigorated buy back underway starting March 2009! This was at the meeting with the Stop Wildlife Poisoning Task Force at Wildlife Direct on 15th April 2009.

But the blog post Lion Poisoning in Tanzania just challenges the reassuring words above. The post contents are words from our informant and colleague who also sent along a pdf. document of the scanned label of the Furadan pack they purchased from one of the Agrovet stores in Tanzania. The pdf speaks volumes! Please look at the 1st page of the sent furadan-label.pdf by our informant for the details I will give below.

JUANCO is East Africa’s distributor of FMC-manufactured Furadan. FMC proclaimed they stopped distributing ‘their’ Furadan to Kenya (essentially to East Africa) around May 2008. The manufacture date on the label pdf reads November 2008. Zoom the document and you will see the date as well as repeated ‘JUANCO’ underwritten in faint brown on the user information in bold black. The underwritting is JUANCO’s ‘water mark’ and therefore authenticates that the product is distributed by JUANCO in this case after being supplied from FMC.

If the product was manufactured in November 2008, there is a likelihood that the product was distributed this year (2009). It means Furadan supply was not halted in May 2008 and there might be on going distribution by the company in question especially due to the fact that there are collosal stocks in the neighbouring countries, Uganda and Tanzania (Furadan is available, for the case of Uganda). Yet again birds continue to be taken down in Bunyala in thousands by the poison with a ghost source but with labels on its containers certainly pointing to JUANCO. Worst case scenario is rebuying to resupply, God Forbid!

The poison’s supply withdrawal and buy back just have not alleviated the situation so far….or are they in effect?!

Technorati : Bunyala, FMC, Furadan, JUANCO, Kenya, Lion, Tanzania, Uganda, Wildlife Direct

Tags: Bunyala, FMC, furadan, JUANCO, Kenya, Lion, Tanzania, Uganda, Wildlife Direct

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Aug 25 2009 | By: Martin Odino

Normally the term poacher brings out the impression that these are fellows hunting average sized to big game. In normal circumstances, ‘normal’poachers hunt game exclusively benefiting entirely from game meat sale and no other activity. I mean they are more or less specialized to this activity targettting ,mostly herbivores.

In Bunyala, poachers are bird hunters in the contemporary setting. But even these have stemed out from an older generation that hunted normally: I mean mainly specialized herbivore hunters relying almost solely on this activity. But of course these were hunted to none in the region.

When I talk of bird poachers therefore, you are less likely to fear that these guys could be dangerous to people who are nosing into their business but reality of the situation is contrary. Noinetheless they are normal people.

Maimed individuals already lying at his feet, this fellow is contemplating a long shot for disoriented individulas that have wondered far

The young man above is hardly in his thirties and poisons birds almost on a daily basis for sale. Off the poisoning field he is an electronics expert repairing mostly radios. Then again he gets hired to work in the irrigation scheme to chase birds, weed or harvest the rice. But may be he does all these tasks because he has two wives, the first of whom is ailing and bed ridden (I hope it is not a furadan-related illness, God forbid) and a couple of children.

This one is an older poacher in his mid thirties I am told has neither wife nor kids. His speciality is small bird and especially dove and pigeon poisoning rather than stork poisoning. But the guy also gets hired for farming activities in the Bunyala RErice Irrigation Scheme.

This guy is a homeowner in his late thirties; a family man and responsible father in a crude way:as you can see his sons are being drilled to take over and follow in his footsteps.

The band above constitutes agemates in their thirties and to a larger part bachelors. These guys all poison storks and it is their unifying factor. A good number have strange story lines inclusive of one known to have chopped off one local tailor’s arm for failing to finish the poacher’s girlfriend’s outfit on the agreed deadline ; another (the guy in green) is renowned for habitually beating up his father, the mentor that saw him rise to bird poisoning profession.

What is common to all these poachers is that they are known to generously spend their money earned in poisoning business in commodities that can best be described as illicit. After work, they flock in Illicit brew dens to down a few tumblers while Marijuana smoking is a norm of this callibre.

Wether the illicit substances are responsible or the guys are haunted by the mad killing of nature’s beings, generally these guys are feared to be bad tempered. Duels and gang fights are not uncommon amongst themselves over poisoned birds-which group’s bird is it?(if the poisoned bird takes off and falls in no man’s land); who is entitled to more dead birds?-It is real jungle style and some days my assistant and I have to watch from a distance. What is worse is that for some reason, which I suspect is poison availability, most of these guys have become so full of themselves and what used to be a joke, “just photograph what I am doing but time is coming when you will have to pay me” is now a real and altered stern warning that I should “absolutely refrain from taking any photos “.

The smell around these strange guys is typically wild, ortherwise fine by me whose ‘brown collar’ job has taught me to appreciate nature in its various shades. This smell is purpoted to be the effect of the many storks they have eaten which smell the same. But acknowledging the odour is disrupted by their warning breath of scary and menacing stench of terror!

Keep reading friends.

Technorati : Bunyala, Poacher, Poisoning

Tags: Bunyala, Poacher, poisoning

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Aug 13 2009 | By: Martin Odino

Dear readers, today’s post is a non-poisoning post of a section of my study site. A ‘cool off’ post I would brand it.

In Bunyala have stood where local legends stood….no, died! Until the 80’s, the villagers congreagated at the south western end of the study site (Munaka)to watch their young men wrestle, drink local brew and may be for the victorious men, win the spouses of a lifetime in commemoration of a lady that was murdered in the area.

30 years down the line, I count dead birds on end and all this because of a deadly carbofuran. It all gained momentum with the introduction of the pesticide about the early 1980’s at the rice scheme. Since then, it has never ended.

The sample poisoned bird above is about the spot where long wethered remains of a Banyala heroine were laid to rest a couple of centuries back.

It was custom that men ’stole’ women from their homes when they were of status to become wives. The dowry negotiations would then be discussed when the lady was safe in the confines of the interested man’s home. Succesful snatching of the woman from her people just added value to the suitability of the man to claim the girl.

A sung lady of ‘paralysing’ beauty was known of the area that is now the death grounds of many birds. When her time was ripe, one suitor engaged his band of agemates in this unavoidable, now medieval operation for any boy turned man. With a succesful raid, the troop made sleek escape back to the man’s home, but lo!tragedy struck in this field. Another suitor, and then another, and another came up to contest for the same lady. To cut the long story short, the outcome was a blood bath of scores dead inclusive of the lady who was stabbed by one of the contesting suitors so that none would have her. After that a bull would be selected from whatever homestead of the clan that the lady hailed from to represent her; her incarnation. This bull roamed freely and you were not to chase it from your farm if he paid you a visit or trouble would come your way. Upon his death, the bull would be replaced according to the dead woman’s command. My agemates tell of a story that when they were in primary school, an unusual antelope in the region wandered into one of the schools neighbouring the site. The kids were out playing. Many chased after the antelope throwing stones, sticks, clubs and the killer clobbered it with a hoe!None of those involved survived without punishment with the voice of the spirit lady heard through one elderly man complaining how she had come to visit her grounds and the ruthless people kill her embodiment. Fines from chicken, goats, sheep and 20 head of cattle for the actual murderer were administered accordingly depending on the role played by the villains.

But the tradition of clebrating this lady is now gone and poisoning goes on unchecked at these once revered grounds. This is tragic!ow I wish the heroine’s multiplied spirits had come as birds and at their poisoning dished out heavy fines to the poisoners.

Please keep reading.

Technorati : Bunyala, heritage

Tags: Bunyala, heritage

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Category: carbofuran | Date: Aug 11 2009 | By: Martin Odino

An officer in his office at PCPB is discussing with his accomplice from JUANCO of their next useful yet again lucrative agrochemical deal. In parliament, politicians are struggling to have patronage over the solving of the cases by the perpetrators of Kenya’s post-election violence.A continent away, a scientist is working away on a computer at FMC. In all these cases, these giants are aware of the sizzling hot Furadan poisoning issue but is a trivial matter to them, or is it a necessary outcome that does not surpass the giants’ benefits from the continued existence of the pesticide in our midst?

In this conservation venture, I meant to collect baseline information and alert conservation and government stakeholders, also train educate and raise awareness on the Furadan poisoning issue. But all these targets are designed to function as a unit. It is therefore a drawback when the enforcer who is the government and its appointed agency, the PCPB, seem dormant and insensitive on the matter.

The Furadan bird poisoning until now seems to effect a mortality of 30% - 40% of the whole bird population exposed to the poisonings. It means 3 to 4 birds die in every 10 that wander into the poacher’s baiting set up. The threat is even higher for tightly social colonies such as the migrant sandpipers and Abdim’s Storks with up to whole colony deaths or 100% mortality.

When FMC announced and began the buy back of its supplied Furadan stocks from Kenya, Mocap quickly replaced it and is at the moment fairly extensively used. No negative effects of the pungent Mocap nor its underperformance have been revealed hitherto which is what was feared of the pesticide. But it was disturbing to find the pesticide still in Kajiado (Kiserian) months later, yet lion deaths due to poisoning by Furadan are known of this pastoralist region. Then Eldoret a few weeks back shocked us with the explicit display of the poisonous pesticide in some agrovet store shelves and now poachers in Bunyala are declaring it on the rise again. I have still not gotten the confirmation but the claim that, “The supplier is still supplying us with Furadan….” by some store keepers in Eldoret Town is a depressing statement. I am forced to think aloud if the statement means, ‘JUANCO are still supplying Furadan’ and where is it from????!!!!…FMC???’ an abomination!

Fellowshipping with bird poachers and trying to enlighten them, counting bird carcasses and turning in poisoning updates has been the procedure during every month’s survey. More has been the testing of the poisoned birds as evidence of bird poisoning using Furadan. While this evidence was stressed on as crucial if any regulation measure had to be effected for Furadan, the agencies whose delegates vehemently insisted on the lab evidence have since been quiet. Does it mean the evidence is not enough as has always been the defence? I am willing to get more samples if they will chip in towards the testing costs. Or is the matter already decided on that Furadan is here to stay?

Technically, this survey is testing methodologiy to be employed elsewhere and is expected that the model survey can be used anywhere. A near success of the methods seems to have hit a snag!

While bird poisonings in Bunyala had drastically declined last month, this is gradually being reversed and is on a steadily elevated trend calling for a change in strategy; may be fill papers with poisoning images. I hope an environmental lawyer out there hears me out!

Keep reading.

Technorati : Bunyala, FMC, Furadan, JUANCO, Mocap, PCPB, Poacher, Poison

Tags: Bunyala, FMC, furadan, JUANCO, Mocap, PCPB, Poacher, poison

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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

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Category: carbofuran | Date: Aug 04 2009 | By: Martin Odino

“No you cannot afford this bird.” ranted the ‘poacher’, clearly getting irritated.

“I will pay double the amount it would cost a dead bird,” I made my bidding.

“KSh.5000!”,the poacher stated his quotation, sounding not at all amused.

A newly captured open-billed stork soon to become a decoy. Ksh.5000 bob is its mimimal value!

This was the conversation I had with one poacher while trying to evaluate the cost of aquiring then probably rehabiliate and set free all captive African Open-billed Storks. The birds are kept under restraint in homesteads for use to lure others during poisoning for wild bird meat.

My interviews with virtually all poachers in Bunyala reveal that none really aquired those birds without an already captured individual. The history of how the first captives were caught seems diffuse to most poachers; all say that a decoy is made of a bird that is least intoxicated and survives poisoning but requires a decoy to lure it and get it to feeding on Furadan-laced bait.

I asked the poacher how he had come up with the Ksh5000 (US$65) and the following constituted the justification:

Realized value of sold poisoned birds due to the decoy:

Having captured and used decoy luring technique to capture birds for a while, the poacher said he had the highest daily sales of birds attributed to one decoy stork at Ksh.5000. On the average this translates to 100 birds each sold at a minimum price of Ksh.50. The minimum cost of Ksh. 50 per bird is typical of high season of bird kill. His bird was therefore worth at least Ksh. 5000.

Cost of Furadan

As a ‘professional’ bird poacher, the poacher said he uses about 10 of the 200gm packs of Furadan, each costing Ksh150 (about 2 dollars). This costs Ksh 1500 (20 dollars). Furadan poison and the decoy are an inseparable Open-billed Stork poisoning unit. He insisted that this should actually be added to the Ksh.5000 figure.

Cost of a photo

The poacher then added that I had to take his photo with the bird which according to him I could sell to tourists at a lucrative value. I would have to pay him Ksh. 5000 for this. I kept my camera where he could see it so that he could see it so that he would not claim I had taken a sneak photo of him.

It is so insane! The cumulative cost stands at a staggering US$150 per bird. There are about 20 pairs of African open-billed Stork captives. Their “buy back”would amount to US$6000! This is a whole project!!!!!.

Banning Furadan and enforcing the regulation will mean keeping the poacher and the poison apart. While no trials so far are working as well as Furadan in bird poisoning in Bunyala, the habit of capturing (and poisoning) storks will decline since one unit of the decoy luring poisoning technique will be lacking.

Furadan 5G, the deadly poisonous pesticide.

Please keep reading.

Technorati : Bunyala, Furadan, Poacher, Poison

Tags: Bunyala, furadan, Poacher, poison

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Category: carbofuran | Date: Jul 30 2009 | By: Martin Odino

Dear readers, the summary on the post 4 points on carbofuran poisoning in humans revealed intentional poisoning in humans as the mode by which human mortalities occured. So is the case for lion poisoning and likewise bird poisoning. But EPA spells that even proper use of the pesticide is harmful especially to children, hence the ongoing process to ban it from the USA “in a move to protect people, especially children, from dietary risk.”

The lab analysts that gave me the facts in the post, 4 points on carbofuran poisoning in humans did not understand why the people feeding on Furadan-poisoned birds in Bunyala (and Mwea) region were not dying. First and foremost, there has been no medical research on the effects of the poison on the people in the areas. Data on human poisoning let alone precision of actual responsible poison is retreavable from the poorly staffed and equiped health centres in the area. We therefore concluded that most likely the deaths occur but are never reported.

But locals and the 2 doctors who also own pharmacies and whom I got to talk to in Bunyala agree there are a couple of mortality cases that occur in the area are certainly poisoning cases. When asked which poison they thought was responsible, they gave a number but named Furadan first; asked what they thought the most common and probable poison used to kill the humans was, they picked on Furadan. Both doctors admit they have no proper records where they have recorded the poisoning cases. For another reason, locals are lacking in liquid cash, though their livestock assets are modest and apparently they save these for last though this is not well illustrated given the high rate of illiteracy and long-illness deaths. The locals therefore will tend to self-treat or strain their immunities to fight without medicinal back up. In such cases, people will try giving the poisoned fellow milk at best otherwise they pass on without medical intervention. Even in death, post-mortems are never carried out let alone being known. The berieved then cling onto the corpse of their beloved one for fear of superstitious practices being performed on their own in case the body has to be taken to hospital for medical examination in which case the dead would remain to haunt them. And so, if Furadan was the cause of death the evidence goes with the dead to the grave.

At the lab, one analyst tried explaining the phenomenon of ‘no observable’ intoxication in humans in Bunyala. He explained that the poison once ingested by a bird goes to the brain before going elsewhere in the body. I wish I understood that but I had to be contented with the path of poison travel as first to the brain. Of course the alimentary canal is tainted with the poison as well. Consumers of the poisoned birds normally get rid of the head, legs and entrails therefore lower the quantity that will be consumed. Nonetheless, the expert said that in this poison’s killing path, the poison does spread. Further, during cooking, the poison is concentrated citing that they use heat to concentrate Furadan in samples to be analysed in the lab for carbofuran. The lttle Furadan in the bird’s meat is therfore consumed after being concentrated even though it may not attain the lethal amount!

Poisoned pigeon in Bunyala: the bird had been picked by 3 boys having died out of the poacher’s poisoning range. Poison is concentrated in the brain and gut.

In the post, Furadan Everywhere, I tried to explain how the Furadan used in Bunyala gets ‘everywhere’ inclusive of domestic water sources. In EPA’s Tolerance Revocation, “EPA completed action to revoke existing carbofuran tolerances (residue limits in food) due to unacceptable dietary risks, especially to children, from consuming a combination of food and water with carbofuran residues.” I think people in Bunyala are consuming this combination. More is that a majority are youngsters (children) with rice being one of the immediate post-weaning foodstuffs that they have to get used to eating.

Kids giving mummy a helping hand with the rice; will they grow to be strong?will they survive? There might just be Furadan residues in the rice that cou;d cause intoxication.

Rice cultivation is inseparable from Furadan use; it is the media by which Furadan found its way to Bunyala. The supply was so gross that the Furadan supplied at planting time from the time the seedlings are developing in the seedbeds remains to be used in vegetable shambas (gardens), poisoning birds and for other crude uses suh as being put on wounds to keep off flies. Those who have tried the latter say the flies drop dead.And it is also the efficient way to commit suicide or kill another person(s) who you are not in very good terms with! As far as rice production is concerned, the rice grown in the fields is as good as a cash crop only not sold by the farmers: the irrigation board claims its lion’s share for the planting inputs that were provided to the farmers once the rice matures and is harvested. Some however remains with the farmers who make it almost an all-meals constituent. In the morning it is taken with tea, at lunch time it may be taken with legumes, mostly beans and in the evening with poisoned bird stew or skipped to be eaten the next day at the frequency of at least 2 meals a day. But EPA says that Furadan even when used as a nematicide correctly in such a manner as rice production, still its residues will remain in the food. So the Banyalas and Luos in satiating their hunger are lodging an intoxicant in their bodies with those unable to survive passing on quietly.

It is a long string of deaths due to Furadan: animal bait(snails, small fish, grasshoppers, locusts,), birds and humans. Elsewhere our majestic big cats are at its mercy.

Please keep reading.

Technorati : , Bunyala, EPA, Furadan, Mwea, poison

Tags: Bunyala, EPA, furadan, Mwea, poison

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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

2 responses so far

Category: carbofuran | Date: Jul 26 2009 | By: Martin Odino

The big question as concerns Furadan poisoning in Kenya is if the pesticide’s availability is legal or illegal. This leaves the situation as concerns practical legal measures to check poisoning of wildlife especially using Furadan uncertain. At the moment, my understanding and many involved conservationists is that the pesticide has been withdrawn from Kenya since early in the second quarter of this year by the known, original manufacture, the FMC . Yet again the business men cum agrovet-keepers ALL seem to have the understanding that Furadan is BANNED. They make reference on the banned status of Furadan to the persons who have been going round retrieving what was left of their Furadan 5G stocks. We know for sure that Juanco, once the local distributors of Furadan have been the ones buying back Furadan and therefore must be the ones giving the explanation that they are retrieving the pesticide because it has been misused to poison wildlife in particular lions. PCPB and AAK have not issued any statement as concerns Furadan, while the Kenyan government discussed the banning of the pesticide in parliament and left the matter on the decision to ban Furadan and other carbofuran’s pending and have since been silent about the issue.

I have continued to observe bird poisoning in Bunyala and though the chemical has not been available on agrovet shelves since December, 2008, birds continue being poisoned in Bunyala Rice irrigation Scheme using the poison. While the means of aquiring the poison have changed and is now a top secret affair, the evidence of the poison’s availability is strongly clear with birds continuing to be poisoned and the product once in the hands of bird poachers, not all of them are astutely careful, leaving about the mess during manouvres to screen the identity of the pesticide uncleared; I mean the containers and labels of Furadan poisoning are never well disposed and litter the fields where they bait birds. Worse is the fact that even though FMC-manufactured stocks of Furadan are being called back, which have a designated label pattern of the text overwritten on diagonal inclined “juanco”repeated sequence throughout the label, some of these labels do not have the identity print suggestive of counterfeit or other manufacture product in wide circulation.

Pieces of evidence not well disposed by bird baiting poachers; no authentication of JUANCO distribution by the repetitive ‘juanco ‘on label and therefore possibly a black market product.

A classic example of the unchanged situation of Furadan in Kenya which has shunned conservationists’ hopes that the supply of the poison will trickle to none in the market hence at least control poisoning of wildlife is the availability of the pesticide in Eldoret, openly displayed in a number of agrovets, just this month. It had been broadly observed that the pesticide was slowly becoming hard to come by (since the buy back was declared) in agrovet stores and in the stores where it was available it was hidden and apparently sold to ’specilal’ customers after authentication that the customer is not a law enforcer. That Furadan is openly available in Eldoret Town and the shopkeepers admiting they know it is ‘banned’ and yet continue displaying and selling it is a disturbing issue.

These are my inferences: If agrovets are still selling the pesticide, it is not against the law if the pesticide is from JUANCO. This is because PCPB acknowledges supplies of Furadan from FMC and JUANCO was the acknowledged local distributor until when FMC voluntarily decided to withdraw and buy back Furadan in which case we hope they have stopped supplying and distributing it respectively. With PCPB’s and the government’s stands unchanged, then the agrovets still with the pesticide are not on the wrong, with supply and distribution regulations unchanged by PCPB. In addition, Kenya’s pesticides’ law infers that a pesticide cannot be banned due to misuse. Sadly, this makes me wonder if the agrovets’ persons tales that ‘Furadan is banned’ was not a story ‘told to be told’ to investigators. In addition, it means Furadan’s ban hitherto is unwarranted by the poisoning of carnivores, birds and possibly people!However, sell of counterfeit pesticide products is illegal and offenders are subject to discipline by law. But the problem is that the non-FMC Furadan may be from licenced suppliers by the regulatory agencies who keep so many matters as classified.

Furadan may just be still legal, much as the withdrawal and buy back by FMC of the poison seemed to push its status to a pseudo-illegal product, I should say. Well, FMC’s and non-FMC Furadans still linger our land and there is no knowing of their fate by our legislators and regulators which still leaves our wildlife perilously vulnerable to deadly , devastating poisoning by this deadly poisonous substance.

A poacher holding poisoned birds by Furadan baiting for human consumption: A scene reflecting a situation in dire need of solving.

Tags: AAK, Birds, Bunyala, FMC, furadan, JUANCO, Kenya, lions, PCPB, poison, Wildlife

One response so far