Group of Action for the Promotion and Protection of the Flora and Fauna (GAPROFFA) report for the IPEN POPs Pesticides Working Group: "Producers perceptions on the risks related to the use of endosulfan in Benin and Togo"
August 2010
This document provides a review of the literature and legal framework for endosulfan in Benin and Togo. It then presents the results of its study of the Oti region of Togo and the Kandi region of Benin.
During the negotiations, the international community understood that there were likely to be more POPs than the twelve substances originally covered by the treaty. Therefore, the Convention established a science-based process for evaluating candidate POPs which recognizes that lack of full scientific certainty should not prevent a candidate substance from proceeding in the evaluation or listing. For COP4, an expert committee of the Convention, the POPs Review Committee (POPRC), has recommended nine new substances for listing.
The use of lindane as a pest control method to reduce damage to economic crops, specifically the wheat midge and locust, is unnecessary given a wide variety of non-insecticidal methods. Integrative pest management methods, including biological controls that can be synthesized and massed produced are an adequate alternative to lindane, an insecticide with known persistence, bioaccumulation, and long-range transport properties, as well as known adverse human and ecological health effects.
