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P A N U P S
Pesticide Action Network Updates Service
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Locust Control in Madagascar
July 10, 2000
In recent years, the island of Madagascar has experienced a major
locust plague. In 1997, the government called for international aid
to fund locust control operations. A report in the most recent
Pesticides News, the quarterly publication of PAN UK, looks at the
impacts of decisions to aerial-spray insecticides over large parts
of the country and at the potentially devastating environmental
consequences on an island renowned for its biodiversity. There has
been no systematic monitoring of the human health impacts of the
spraying, or assessment of whether locusts have caused enough damage
to affect food supplies in Madagascar.
Madagascar lies off the east coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean.
Nearly 78% of the 15 million residents are farmers living in rural
areas; per capita income is one of the lowest in the world.
Locust control operations have been oriented entirely around
large-scale application of synthetic chemical insecticides. From
1997 to 1999, more than US$35 million was spent on pesticides
applied from the air and on the ground. The pesticide most commonly
used was fipronil, a relatively new active ingredient not fully
tested for use in Madagascar. Fipronil has been classified by the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a possible human carcinogen.
A survey of 100 people in one spray area found that 60% showed
symptoms of pesticide poisoning. Of a further 38 people tested, 80%
showed reduction in cholinesterase activity due to exposure to
organophosphate or carbamate insecticides.
The European Union and Cóoperation Français were the primary donors
funding control operations; the World Bank provided some initial
funding but withdrew support in 1998 because of concerns over the
pesticides used. As the Madagascar locust campaign continued, some
donors questioned the strategies employed. Their investigations
suggest the scale of food losses may be exaggerated and that the
volume of spray treatment could be reduced. But in spite of
concerns, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) drew up a
budget in 1999 for a further US$17.6 million to continue the
operations.
The UK Department for International Development (DFID) was one of
the few donors, with the German aid agency GTZ, to provide funds for
an assessment of the environmental effects of the widespread
spraying program. The study, carried out by UK-based Natural
Resources Institute (NRI), became the first in the world to monitor
the environmental impacts of an emergency locust control program.
As a result of their investigations, NRI researchers found that
fipronil had a serious impact on termite populations in sprayed
areas. Six months after spraying, few, if any, healthy colonies
survived in termite mounds within the barrier spray areas.
Ecological implications could be devastating since termites play a
crucial role not only in nutrient cycling, soil structure and water
infiltration, but also as a food source for animals higher on the
food chain. The NRI study also found evidence of adverse impacts of
fipronil on other non-target insects including bees and possibly
some lizards and birds.
In May 1998, a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
team spent two weeks in the country studying two areas of high
locust concentration. The team found that crop losses from locusts
in the area were substantially below anticipated levels. In one
area, farmers interviewed told of losses in corn and rice of more
than 50%. However, when asked how they would deal with the loss, 82%
responded that they had planted cassava as a back up crop, which
they could either eat or sell to buy other food.
Farmers in Madagascar have developed a range of responses to these
outbreaks, and it appears that the outbreaks of the last few years
have not had a significant impact on food supplies. It is widely
understood by locust experts that preventive approaches, including
monitoring and an early response system, to locust outbreaks are
superior to "emergency" action.
Past experience points to the dangers of ignoring a precautionary
approach. Years of spraying locust outbreaks in the Sahel with the
environmentally-persistent organochlorine dieldrin had unforeseen
consequences. Residues of this deadly pesticide can still be found
throughout the global environment, in the food chain and even in
human bodies.
The report in Pesticides News looks in detail at the pressures that
led to a trail of poor decision-making, which may have caused
irreversible damage to this unique tropical ecosystem.
Source: "Poisoning an Island? Locust control in Madagascar," by
Barbara Dinham, Pesticides News 48, June 2000. The full report can
be viewed at http://www.pan-uk.org/pnews/pn48.htm. A fact sheet on
fipronil is also on the Web site, and an expanded briefing will be
available shortly.
Contact: Pesticide Action Network UK, Eurolink Centre, 49 Effra
Road, London SW2 1BZ, UK; phone (44-020) 7274 8895; fax (44-020)
7274 9084; email admin@pan-uk.org; http://www.pan-uk.org.
PANUPS is a weekly email news service providing resource guides and
reporting on pesticide issues that don't always get coverage by the
mainstream media. It's produced by Pesticide Action Network North
America, a non-profit and non-governmental organization working to
advance sustainable alternatives to pesticides worldwide.
You can join our efforts! We gladly accept donations for our work
and all contributions are tax deductible in the United States. Visit
our extensive web site at http://www.panna.org to learn more about
getting involved.
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