Associação inglesa apela pela proibição de pesticidas neonicotinóides para evitar a morte de abelhas
Arte: Luciano Lobelcho, do Jornal Extra Classe, SINPRO/RS
A Soil Association lançou um apelo ao governo inglês para que sejam proibidos os pesticidas relacionados à morte de abelhas ao redor do mundo. Os produtos químicos são amplamente utilizados na agricultura britânica, mas foram proibidos, como forma de precaução, em quatro outros países europeus. Por Henrique Cortez*, do Ecodebate.
Na semana passada, o governo italiano emitiu uma suspensão imediata após ter admitido que os pesticidas foram responsáveis pela morte de abelhas. França, Alemanha e Eslovênia já haviam decidido pela proibição.
Os pesticidas, conhecidos como neonicotinóides, são usados para matar insetos em uma variedade de culturas, incluindo a colza, cevada e beterraba. A sua utilização em colza é particularmente preocupante para os apicultores, porque sua flor amarela é muito atraente para as abelhas.
A Alemanha suspendeu a venda de agrotóxicos neonicotinóides em maio depois de 700 apicultores, ao longo do Reno informaram que dois terços das suas abelhas haviam morrido na seqüência da aplicação dos agrotóxico. Na França, imidacloprid foi proibida em 1999 e em girassóis desde 2003, depois que um terço das abelhas foram exterminados.
Imidacloprid é o pesticida mais vendido pela Bayer CropScience e é utilizado em 120 países. A Bayer mantêm a versão de que os neonicotinóides que são seguros para as abelhas, desde que corretamente aplicados.
A National Farmers’ Union, por outro lado, e opõe a qualquer proibição de pesticidas. Paul Chambers, conselheiro da NFU disse: “Proibir pesticidas, utilizando o princípio da precaução, não é baseado em boa ciência. Pragas e doenças são os problemas enfrentados por abelhas no Reino Unido. O governo precisa colocar mais dinheiro em pesquisa na saúde de abelhas”.
O Departamento para o Ambiente, Alimentação e Assuntos Rurais também atribuí a queda na população de abelhas a uma variedade de fatores, não expressando qualquer intenção de proibir os pesticidas.
Apicultores em todo o mundo têm de relatado perdas catastróficas de 30% até 90% das suas colônias abelhas, durante os últimos dois anos. Dois terços de todas as grandes culturas dependem de polinização, principalmente pelas abelhas.
Nota do Ecodebate: suberimos que leiam, também:
Itália proibe agrotóxicos neonicotinóides associados à morte de abelhas
Interesse político não deixa que mortes de abelhas sejam esclarecidas, afirma agrônomo gaúcho
neonicotinóides: Agrotóxico vendido no Brasil pode levar à contaminação do mel
Agrotóxicos matam abelhas e envenenam nossa alimentação
Alemanha proíbe oito pesticidas neonicotinóides em razão da morte maciça de abelhas
Alemanha: Pesticidas da Bayer são acusados da morte em massa de abelhas
http://www.ecodebate.com.br/index.php/2008/08/29/alemanha-pesticidas-da-bayer-sao-acusados-da-morte-em-massa-de-abelhas/
Agrotóxico que combate praga da laranja está dizimando abelhas no interior de São Paulo
Morte de abelhas no Reino Unido ameaça a polinização de frutas e vegetais
Abelhas ajudam no reflorestamento da Amazônia
O mistério do desaparecimento das abelhas continua
Soil Association calls for urgent ban on dangerous pesticides linked to honey bee deaths
A group of insect-killing sprays known as neonicotinoids [1] that are widely used in UK farming have now been banned in four other European countries because they are thought to be killing bees [2]. Italy has just joined Germany, Slovenia and France in banning the sprays [3]. This week the Italian government issued an immediate suspension of these sprays after they accepted that they are killing bees. The Soil Association has today written to Hilary Benn, the Secretary of State for the Environment, urging him to ban the sprays in the UK with immediate effect [4].
There is worldwide concern at widespread, unexplained and devastating deaths of honey bees over the last two years. Bee keepers have reported potentially catastrophic loss of bees from their hives ranging anywhere from 30-90 percent. Britain’s beekeepers have reported that close to one in three hives have failed to make it through last winter and spring[5]. This “Colony Collapse Disorder” (CCD) is not just a problem for beekeepers and farmers, but for consumers as well, since bee pollination is essential for crop production. The US Department of Agriculture says that one out of every three mouthfuls of food is dependant on bee pollination, and globally up to two-thirds of all major crops rely on pollination, mainly by bees.
The products implicated in bee deaths, clothianidin, imidacloprid, fipronil and thiamethoxam, are approved to kill insects on a wide range of crops in the UK including very widely grown oilseed rape, barley, and sugar beet. They are also cleared for use in ornamental plant and hop production [6]. The use of these chemicals on oilseed rape is of particular concern, as the crop’s yellow flowers are very attractive to honey bees, and the crop has become popular with bee keepers.
Peter Melchett, Soil Association Policy Director said, “It is typical of the lax approach to pesticide regulation in the UK that we look like being one of the last of the major farming countries in the EU to wake up to the threat to our honey bees and ban these nasty sprays. We want the Government to act today to remove this threat to Britain’s honey bees. The UK Government is almost alone in the EU in fighting against proposed new, tighter European controls on farm sprays, and in the light of what has happened to honey bees, we are calling on Hilary Benn to back European proposals for tighter controls on farm sprays.”
Since their introduction by Bayer CropScience in the USA in 2003, these neonicotinoid sprays have been linked to the devastating loss of millions of honey bees in a number of countries. Germany banned the pesticides after beekeepers in the Baden-Wurttenberg region reported that two thirds of their bees died in May following the application of clothianidin. In 1995 bee keepers in North Dakota took Bayer to court when a third of their bees were killed by imacloprid. In France, a third of the honey bee population was killed after widespread use of imidacloprid [7].
Organic farming relies on a number of techniques to avoid the use of sprays that kill insects, including not growing the same or similar crops every year, and encouraging natural predators of insect pests (like wild birds, ladybirds and lacewings). Under Soil Association organic rules, only four sprays can be used, compared to over 300 available to non-organic farmers.
For media enquiries contact the Soil Association press office 0117 914 2448 / press@soilassociation.org
Notes to editors:
[1] These pesticides are approved for use in the UK and are known by the following names:
clothianidin – Bayer UK 978, Deter, Modesto, Poncho, Poncho 250, Poncho Beta, Raxil Deter, Redigo Deter, (all manufactured by Bayer CropScience)
imidacloprid – Admire, Bayer uk 720, Baytan Secur, Bug free extra, Chinook, Chinook blue, Chinook colourless, Couraze, Gaucho, Imadasect, Intercept, Merit turf, Mido 70%, Neptune, Nuprid, Provado ultimate bug killer, Raxil secur, Tripod plus
fipronil – Regent 1GR, Vi-Nil
thiamethoxam – Actara, Bug attack granules/liquid/quicksticks, Centric, Cruiser sb
http://www.pesticides.gov.uk/
[2] Neonicotinoid pesticides are systemic chemicals that work their way through the plant and attack the nervous system of any insect it comes into contact with. The substances also get into the pollen and the nectar and this is how they damage beneficial insects such as bees.
[3] Italy followed Germany and Slovenia which banned sales of clothianidin and imidacloprid in May. In France imidacloprid has been banned for use on sunflowers and in 2003 the use of the spray on sweet corn was also banned. Bayer´s application for clothianidin was rejected by French authorities. www.CBGnetwork.org
[4] Soil Association letter to Hilary Benn (cut and paste the link below for a pdf of the letter):
http://www.soilassociation.org/web/sa/saweb.nsf/0/eee209d5dea3ad9a802574d0004d10ee/$FILE/Hilary%20Benn%20letter%2026.09.pdf
[5] http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/may/23/wildlife.endangeredspecies
http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/endangered-species/dn14237-decline-in-bee-diversity-could-sting-crop-producers.html
[6] http://www.pesticides.gov.uk/
[7] Clothianidin and imidacloprid are produced by the German company Bayer CropScience and generated €800 million in profits in 2007. Imidacloprid is Bayer’s best-selling pesticide. In August the German ‘Coalition against Bayer Dangers’ brought a charge against Werner Wenning, chairman of the Bayer Board of Management, for marketing dangerous pesticides and thereby accepting the mass death of bees all over the world. The charge was introduced in cooperation with German beekeepers who lost thousands of hives after poisoning by the pesticide clothianidin in May this year.
www.CBGnetwork.org
* Com informações da Soil Association.
[EcoDebate, 01/10/2008]