Subscribe to Receive the Daily Report

Tuesday, February 26th, 2013

RSPB Demands Ban on Pesticides Linked to Bee Decline

Author:     MICHAEL MCCARTHY
Source:     The Independent (UK)
Publication Date:     Thursday 21 February 2013
 Link: RSPB Demands Ban on Pesticides Linked to Bee Decline
Stephan:   This is very good news. Not perfect, as you'll see, but very good. In the U.K. those interested in preserving the bees seem to have reached critical mass. If there is improvement in the U.K. there will be irresistible pressure to do the same in the U.S. I think China will also adopt this. The Chinese are already having to hand pollinate in some areas, and finding it very heavy going. I just hope aren't too late.

Controversial nerve-agent pesticides widely linked to decline in bees around the world should be banned, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) says today.

Neonicotinoids should no longer be used on crops which attract bees and other pollinating insects, the RSPB says, in a call for the Government to support a proposed EU ban on the three most common neonicotinoid substances.

The intervention of the million-member society comes after a mounting tide of evidence indicating linkages between the use of the chemicals, made by the agribusiness giants Bayer and Syngenta, and collapses in colonies of honey bees and bumblebees.

More than 30 separate scientific studies in the last three years have shown adverse effects on insects from neonicotinoids, which are ‘systemic’ insecticides, meaning they enter every part of the target plants – including the pollen and nectar which bees harvest. In January, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) published a scientific opinion recommending that the three main substances – imidacloprid, clothianidin and thiamethoxam – should not be used on crops attractive to bees. RSPB agricultural policy officer Ellie Crane said yesterday: ‘We’ve been reviewing the science for a long time, and scientists are telling us that neonicotinoids might be killing bees.

‘Everyone […]

Read the Full Article