Press Release: Kenyan Legislator Seeks Total Ban on Furadan

June 2, 2009

PRESS RELEASE2 June 2009

For Immediate ReleaseContact:Samuel Maina+254-20-3865120WildlifeDirect Inc.

Kenyan Legislator Seeks Total Ban on Furadan

NAIROBI, Kenya - 2 June 2009. A Kenyan legislator, Honourable John Matutho, is today expected to ask for total ban on Furadan in parliament. Hon. Matutho, who represents the Naivasha Constituency and is Chair of the Parliamentary Agricultural Committee, will ask the Minister for Environment and Natural Resources to effect a total ban on this pesticide that is reported to have killed more than 30 lions, hundreds of vultures and other animals.Furadan is the brand name of Philadelphia-based FMC Corporation's formulation of carbofuran-based pesticides considered to be the most lethal in their class. Available cheaply in Kenya, the pesticide is being used by local herdsmen in retaliatory poisoning of lions and other carnivores blamed of predation on their livestock.On 29 April, after American broadcaster, CBS, aired a documentary about lion poisoning in Kenya in their 60 Minutes programme, the pesticide manufacturers, FMC Corporation, immediately announced the withdrawal of Furadan in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania and instructed the local distributor, Juanco Limited to immediately begin a buy-back programme in Kenya to remove all available stock from the shelves. There are only about 2100 lions left in Kenya.The buy back programme is considered by local conservationists to be largely ineffective as more than one month later, the pesticide is still reported to be causing wildlife deaths in various locations in Kenya. Juanco, the Kenyan distributor, is also reported to be resisting the proposed ban as 'it will hurt their profits', and therefore seen as reluctant to carry out the buy-back programme.This has prompted a group of Kenyan conservation organizations, including Nature Kenya, Youth for Conservation and The East African Wildlife Society to launch a campaign to push the government to ban this deadly chemical. They got unprecedented support from the Naivasha Member of Parliament, Hon. Matutho although his push for the hearing of his proposal for a total ban has been postponed twice already.On 18 March 2009 the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) concluded that "dietary, worker, and ecological risks are unacceptable for all uses of carbofuran" and hence cancelled all tolerances for carbofuran in in food. On 11 May, they announced the total ban on these tolerances. In December 2008, the EU also effectively banned carbofurans. Canada is expected to follow suit in the near future.American scientists concluded, in as far back as the late nineties, that there is no foreseable way that carbofurans can be used on crops without killing birds. The EPA also concuded that 'all products containing carbofuran generally cause unreasonable adverse effects on humans and the environment and do not meet safety standards'The Furadan problem in Kenya is therefore not only a wildlife issue but also a human health issue. A researcher, Martin Odino, who's been monitoring Furadan use in Bunyala Rice Scheme in western Kenya reports that birds are deliberately poisoned and sold in the local market as human food. A study on the effect of poison-fishing on dragonflies on Lake Victoria by a Kenyan PhD candidate at Harvard University, Dino J Martins, has also revealed that Furadan is being used widely to fish in the lake. The fish is intended for human consumption. HIV/AIDS orphans from the lakeside are allowed collect the immature fish buycatch for their food thereby exposing them to this same poisoning risk.Cases of inadequate monitoring of health risks in Kenya are not unusual and Martin Odino believes that it is just a matter of time before human deaths are reported.WildlifeDirect is concerned and is asking all journalists and other media people who can give this issue extensive media coverage to do so. We believe that with a lot of media attention, Kenya's parliament and government will be inclined to at least listen to one of their own - Hon. John Matutho.

WildlifeDirect is a non-profit conservation organization based in Kenya that uses the internet to create awareness about conservation issues and to raise funds for conservation through Web Logs (blogs) written by field conservationists. WildlifeDirect endeavors to create a movement powerful enough to produce a virtual endowment capable of reversing the catastrophic loss of habitats and species. WildlifeDirect is Registered as a charity in the USA and in Kenya.

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For more information contact: Samuel Maina maina**WildlifeDirect has collected a wealth of background information that is available to any journalist who wants to cover this issue in their media. Contact Samuel Maina for this information.

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