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Editorial

The Africa Stockpiles Programme 4

Taking stock — the first step 5  
The first step to removing and destroying stockpiles of obsolete pesticides is create an accurate inventory of what exists. Kevin Helps reports on the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nation’s first training session on inventory recently held in Tanzania.

African NGO action for clean-up 6
PAN UK and PAN Africa jointly organised a workshop in July for NGOs, to introduce the Africa Stockpiles Programme and build capacity in key areas where NGOs are expected to play an important role in ASP implementation. Eloise Touni reports.

Controversies over destruction technologies 7
Incinerating POPs chemicals is known to generate the potent carcinogen dioxin. The Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) are campaigning for the use of sustainable ‘no-burn’ technologies to replace incineration. Ann Leonard reports on GAIA’s concerns and their support for ASP.

Green Muscle® successfully controls desert locust 8

Project Safe Send 9
More than 85 tons of unusable pesticides, including DDT, mercury, arsenic and other potentially dangerous chemicals, were collected and trucked out of North Dakota this year, thanks to a long-established state programme known as Project Safe Send. Ted Quanrud reports on its successes.

Flourishing botanicals sector for Tanzania 10
Tanzanian farmers still rely on synthetic pesticides despite their expense and environmental and health hazards. Development of IPM strategies could include low cost, less hazardous methods of botanical origin. Maulid Walad Mwatawala reviews the potential for effective use of botanical preparations in Tanzania.

Obsolete pesticides threaten Vikuge village, Tanzania 12
A store of unused pesticides donated by the Greek government to Tanzania in the 1980s collapsed leaving the pesticides exposed to wind and rain. Michael Kishimba, Henry Kylin, Matabola Mihale and Sara Elfvendahl have studied the extent of contamination at Vikuge State Farm and report on their results.

Tanzania tackles unlawful pesticide sales 15
Most African governments have now adopted legislation to regulate the distribution and use of pesticides. But limited financial, personnel and technical resources means that implementation of laws is difficult. Alcheraus Rwazo and Habib Mkalanga report on an innovative new strategy to address illegal sales practices in Tanzania.

Momentum growing in Eastern Europe 17
With estimations of over 500,000 tonnes in existence globally, obsolete pesticides have become a major burden on the environment. Sitting in the corners of warehouses, or buried underground, they are often stored in corroding barrels from which they seep, contaminating soil, groundwater or rivers. In Central and Eastern Europe several hundred thousand tonnes are thought to exist. Managing these is now an important environmental issue. Jan Betlem reports.

Stockpile legacy in the Czech Republic 19
Obsolete pesticides have been removed from a former production facility in the Czech Republic. The level of contamination remaining illustrates that removal of pesticides is only the first step in cleaning up old storage sites. Miroslav Beránek and Jindrich Petrlík report

Hazards of burial site in Armenia 20
Significant contamination has been found in soil around a site where 500 tonnes of obsolete pesticides were buried. Elena Manvelyan, Lilik Simonyan and Emma Anakhasyan report on the situation and on actions being taken.

News and resources 21
Re-approval of chlorpyrifos in Europe 
New resource on spraydrift
Buried pesticide threat in Belarus

Book reviews 22
The complete guide to cocoa
The remarkable growth of fair trade
Growing for an organic future
A story about organic cotton
The ethics of testing toxics on animals
The toxic legacy of Dow Chemical