1080 protests planned

Conservation and animal health officials who hoped that calling in the quasi-judicial Environmental Risk Management Authority (Erma) to review 1080 poison in 2007 would blunt growing opposition will tomorrow face a nationwide series of rallies.

The protest rallies against aerial drops of 1080 poison are being held in many centres tomorrow, including Auckland and Wellington, as well as more rural spots on the West Coast, Golden Bay and at Te Anau.

Organised by Poison Free New Zealand, the rallies have been promoted with a protest song, Enuf is Enuf, and claims that aerial dropping of poisons has undesirable side effects for the environment, health and native wildlife.

Organisers have held screenings of a high-profile documentary on the subject : Poisoning Paradise: Ecocide in New Zealand.

The group wants to have all aerial drops of poisons abolished and replaced with sustainable alternative pest eradication and trapping programs.

This is despite the Erma decision in 2007 to allow the continued use of 1080 - the chemical sodium monofluoroacetate - in aerial drops of poison baits because it is a "necessary evil" with no economic alternative for culling possums.

New Zealand uses about two tonnes of the poison annually, 80 percent of world production.

"As far as the effective control of possums in the more remote parts of New Zealand is concerned, there is no practical alternative applied by air," said Erma chairman Neil Walter.

The regulator did not reduce the maximum amount of the poison allowed to be dropped on each hectare, because it said there were circumstances when pest controllers wanted the flexibility to use higher amounts, such as when they were targeting multiple pests.

Erma admitted to gaps in research on the poison and has called for extra scientific effort, without saying who should carry it out or fund it.

The Erma re-assessment was sought by the Department of Conservation (DOC) and the Animal Health Board (AHB), apparently partly in hopes that a robust scientific review of its risks and benefits would disarm increasing opposition to some uses, particularly aerial drops.

Advocates for its continued use reasoned that the Erma ruling would provide a better basis for dealing with recurring controversies over human exposure to the poison, the by-kill of feral deer, inadvertent poisoning of dogs, and questions over the poison's safety around waterways.

Erma did not axe the use of carrot baits, and permitted the continued presence of carrot "chaff"' in the baits - regarded by many experts as a primary cause of by-catch of some native birds in aerial poison drops.

On secondary poisoning in animals such as dogs and morepork, Erma ruled against the critics, saying it would be impractical to remove carcasses which might be scavenged.

Lincoln University wildlife management expert, Professor Charles Eason said yesterday that 1080 debate had actually become more polarised since the Erma re-assessment in 2007.

Despite considerable commitment, effort and initiatives, there was a gap between conventional poisons and the requirements of modern biocontrol that needed to be filled.

"More effective, safer alternatives to 1080 for the control of possums, predators, rodents and rabbits are required now to reduce over reliance on 1080 and provide greater flexibility.

"With continued focused research effort the next one to six years will see changes as improved, increasingly-ecofriendly, toxin products become available, and additional products with novel active ingredients targeting possums and other major pests are delivered," he said in a statement.

- NZPA