Annex A
ENGLISH NATURE POSITION STATEMENT ON THE
USE OF PESTICIDES AND VETERINARY MEDICINES IN AGRICULTURE
The use of pesticides to control crop pests,
weeds and diseases, and of veterinary medicines to protect livestock
health, continues to give rise to concerns about effects on wildlife
for a number of reasons:
The extensive use of pesticides has, together
with other changes in farming practice, contributed to significant
declines in the numbers and diversity of insects and wild plants
in farmland. By affecting their food supply, this indirect effect
of pesticide use has contributed to serious declines in the populations
of farmland birds.
Wildlife of semi-natural habitats including
watercourses, hedgerows and SSSIs, can be damaged by pesticide
drift or over-spraying, and by the use or disposal of veterinary
medicines such as sheep dip and fish farming medicines.
Local populations of rare species including
some birds of prey are at risk from the misuse or deliberate abuse
of pesticides and veterinary medicines.
The approved use of pesticides still leads to
occasional incidents of wildlife mortality. There is a need for
continued vigilance over this, and for an improved understanding
of the consequences for wildlife populations of exposure to sublethal
concentrations of pesticides and veterinary medicines.
English Nature recognises the dependence of
current farming practice on pesticides and veterinary medicines
to deliver the productivity, quality and animal welfare standards
required. However, although the total weight of pesticides used
has generally decreased, the area treated (especially in arable
crops) and efficacy of products has continued to rise, and there
is scope for reducing routine use. English Nature believes that
it is important to reduce further the impacts and risks to biodiversity
caused by the use of these products.
The objectives of English Nature's policy are
to promote the restoration of the characteristic wildlife of agricultural
habitats, especially priority species in the Biodiversity Action
Plan, and to protect semi-natural habitats (including SSSIs) and
non-target species from the adverse effects of pesticide use.
Restoration of farmland biodiversity requires action to counter
the effects of agricultural intensification. This will include
appropriately targeted reductions and greater selectivity in the
use of pesticides, together with other changes in agricultural
practice achieved through changes in agricultural and land use
policy. English Nature will encourage the following measures which
include reductions in pesticide use targeted to optimise benefits
for wildlife, and will favour policies and agricultural production
systems under which these measures are promoted. These measures
fall into three broad groupings:
(a) A strong regulatory and enforcement process
must be maintained for pesticides and veterinary products. English
Nature supports the approvals system in its aim of minimising
the risks of adverse effects. However, the process of regulation
currently fails to address fully the requirements to protect and
restore farmland biodiversity. English Nature will:
— press for the assessment of indirect
effects, such as changes in food availability for declining farmland
birds, in the regulatory process for pesticides and veterinary
medicines, and promote a range of approaches to compensate for
such effects;
— press for the establishment of an
institutional framework that ensures that the development and
uptake of new technologies for crop production does not have adverse
direct or indirect effects on biodiversity through changing patterns
of pesticide use;
— advise the Pesticide Forum and the
Advisory Committee on Pesticides on the environmental effects
of pesticides. Encourage a fuller assessment by regulatory bodies
of the scale and patterns of use of all pesticides and veterinary
medicines, and of the progress of the Government's policy for
minimising pesticide use;
— press for wider monitoring of pesticide
impacts in terrestrial and freshwater environments, to include
taxa which are currently not monitored under existing schemes;
— carry out, promote and advise on
research into the impacts and risks of pesticide use on wildlife
populations, in association with government and environmental
groups;
— support the work of the regulatory
bodies and others in investigating pesticide incidents and in
prosecuting offenders.
(b) To maximise the contribution of a pesticide
policy to achieving government's targets for farmland biodiversity,
pesticide minimisation programmes are required which have this
clear objective. A reduction in the impact of pesticides, as a
component of wider measures to achieve biodiversity targets, will
require the use of more selective products, more targeted applications,
and greater use of non-chemical means over wide areas of farmland.
English Nature will:
— help to develop and promote the wider
availability and improved uptake (including increases in funding)
of schemes designed to reduce the impact of indirect effects of
pesticides;
— promote the development and uptake
of alternative methods of controlling pests, weeds and diseases.
This would particularly involve the promotion of approaches such
as organic farming, Integrated Farming Systems, and farm produce
assurance schemes, where these approaches can be shown to benefit
wildlife;
— in association with the crop protection
industry and bodies such as MAFF, the Farming and Wildlife Advisory
Group and the Environment Agency, help to develop and promote
improved information for users and advisers on the environmental
effects of pesticides;
— support the adoption of economic
measures which discourage unnecessary pesticide use, and encourage
greater use of more selective products.
(c) A precautionary approach is needed to minimise
the risk of adverse effects on semi-natural habitats from the
use of pesticides and veterinary medicines. English Nature will:
— promote measures, in association
with advisory bodies and regulators, to minimise pesticide drift
and more closely confine pesticides and veterinary medicines to
the intended target; and to reduce the risks arising from their
disposal;
— develop further the use of appropriate
no-spray zones for pesticides around sensitive sites and habitats,
seek strict adherence to Codes of Practice to protect semi-natural
habitats, and seek further legislation where voluntary measures
are failing;
— provide advice, where appropriate,
to owners, occupiers, contractors and regulatory bodies on the
risks of pesticides and veterinary products in or near SSSIs and
other sites of wildlife importance, and seek to develop and promote
alternatives to herbicide use in the management of NNRs and SSSIs
where possible.
March 2000
|
