The Current Approach: The Issues

The current approach to managing locusts aims at eliminating or severely reducing the frequency and extent, of migrating swarms. To do this locusts are attacked in their natural breeding areas before swarms can develop. This approach fails to recognise the environmental benefits of migrating locust swarms and treats an important native species as a pest.

The other form of locust management deals with the occassional swarms that manage to slip through the "preventative" treatments. Thousands of hectares of land are aerial-sprayed with insecticides to try to kill mature locust swarms. Some of these insecticides are hazardous chemicals which are banned in a number of countries due to their toxicity and threat to the environment and human health. The catalyst for this kind of re-active response is concerns about crop and pasture losses, which are usually grossly exaggerated by the media.

In today�s modern world, we sometimes try to kid ourselves that nature conservation and sustainability are important, and yet here we have the exact opposite occurring on a massive scale, even in "Clean and Green" countries such as Australia.

The future of Locusts in Australia and in other countries is hard to predict. There is the example in the USA, where an enormous plague turned to extinction in a matter of decades, and in Africa; huge campaigns that seem ineffective at solving the problems of swarms on agricultural food crops.

On one hand is the possibility of extinction of a vital ecological process. On the other hand is the possibility of ongoing increasingly costly control measures which are likely to have other devastating effects on the environment.

The following points summarize the flaws in the current approach to locust control, and illustrate why the need for an alternative approach is imminent.

• An important wildlife species is considered a pest and attacked on a huge scale, with little regard to the consequences.
• The current approach to locust control does not recognise the swarming and migration of locusts as an important element of eco-system function. Its aim has been to eliminate or seriously reduce the occurrence of locust migrations.
• Locust migrations in Australia, and in other countries, have already suffered a massive decline, in both their size and extent. This has, and will increasingly have negative consequences to natural ecosystems throughout their former range.
• The chemicals used in locust control effect non-target species, either directly by poisoning, or as secondary poisoning or destruction of the food source.
• The present chemical controls are a public health risk.
• The current controls are very costly, and it is doubtful that these costs will be possible in the future when margins for agricultural produce are likely to be lower.
• Current control measures are ineffective in preventing damage to high value food crops, even when the swarms involved are small.
• There is no conservation strategy for Locusts. They are sprayed even in remote wilderness locations, severely interfering with their natural cycle and the ecological function of wilderness areas.
• A conflict is created between conservation aims and agricultural economy, broadening the gap between the conservation minded and the agricultural economy sector.

Read about A Different Approach