Indonesia has a flawless approval system, but virtually no monitoring programmes to police the use of pesticides. Ian Shaw reports on pilot work that his group has carried out analysing residues in human milk.
Indonesia is amongst the most beautiful countries in the world. It is just 6o south of the Equator and has a lush tropical climate with many rare species of plant and animal. The Indonesian archipelago comprises some 17,000 islands, each with its own tradition and culture. It is the 4th most populated country in the world with approximately 200 million inhabitants.
Good regulation - bad policing
The legislation that governs the use and approval of pesticides in Indonesia is excellent; it is based on a model employed by most western countries including the US, Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The basis of the legislation is that prospective pesticides must be tested employing a battery of environmental toxicity tests by the company submitting them for approval by the governments' Pesticides Committee. The Pesticides Committee then scrutinises the results and decides whether to recommend to ministers that the pesticide be approved for use. Indonesia also employs a quick route for approval which allows pesticides approved by countries such as the US and UK to be given approval for use in Indonesia.
On the face of it this approvals system appears flawless. However, it has a major drawback. There is no monitoring programme to police the use of pesticides. Therefore anyone can use anything with little fear of being caught and punished. Therefore there is no way of checking that government pesticides legislation is being obeyed. This is illustrated well by DDT. The Indonesian government banned the use of DDT (except for Anopheles mosquito control) in the early 1980s, however I spent several days in a farming region 60 miles outside Jakarta and talked to three farmers; two of the farmers freely admitted using DDT regularly on their crops. Both were unaware that there was anything wrong with the use of this highly effective and cheap pesticide. This is a tiny sample of farmers and might be unrepresentative. It may be however, that it is an accurate reflection of the situation. Most farmers in Indonesia work on a very small scale, are relatively poor and definitely do not understand the implications of the misuse of pesticides. Their primary concern is to grow food to feed their families and to sell their produce which allows them to buy essentials for their wives and children.