"The evidence is clear: pesticide use is wiping out insect populations and ecosystems around the world, and threatening food production."
A praying mantis- photo: patrickkavanagh/CC BY 2.0
A new report released Tuesday draws attention to the worldwide decline in
insects and calls for global policies to boost the conservation of both
agriculture and the six-footed creatures.
The publication, entitled Insect Atlas, comes from two progressive
networks: Brussels-based Friends of the Earth and Berlin-based Heinrich Böll
Foundation.
"The global loss of insects is dramatic," Heinrich Böll Foundation president
Barbara Böll said in a statement.
The report points to various studies documenting that loss, including 2018
research finding 41% of insect species are in decline and that one-third of
all insect species are threatened by extinction. The Intergovernmental
Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)
estimated that 10 percent of insect species are endangered, and another
study cited in the new analysis found that at least one in 10 bee and
butterfly species in Europe is threatened with extinction.
While there's no definitive count of the global loss of insects, Insect
Atlas says the trend is unmistakable.
That decline has major impacts on food.
"Three-quarters of the world's most important crops exhibit a yield benefit
from pollinators: they contribute directly to around one-third of global
food production," says the report.
The methods used for that production have a huge impact on insects.
"Alongside climate change and light pollution, the spread and
intensification of farming is by far the most important cause of the global
decline in insect numbers," the report adds.
This type of farming is dependent upon expanding pasture—often at the
expense of destroying Indigenous land and wild animal habitat—and
prioritizes monocultures and therefore insect-killing pesticides, the use of
which has steadily increased for the past nine decades, the economic profits
of which are predominantly flowing towards just four entities: BASF, Bayer,
Syngenta, and Corteva. From the publication:
What is more, the number of chemical products in use around the world continues to increase. And, their negative effects on the insect world are also becoming more and more evident. This is not just because a growing number of chemicals are being applied; the formulations are also increasingly effective and can be used more selectively.
Even when some nations ban certain pesticides over concerns, the chemicals'
adverse impacts don't disappear; they just change locations.
The developed world is waking up to the risks associated with the use of
pesticides. The situation is different in the developing world: chemicals
that are banned in Europe and North America are still used routinely to
control pests. Stricter controls are needed, along with better information
for farmers.
Dismantling industrial agriculture, says the report, is essential. "There is
no alternative: to protect insects, farming must become part of the
solution. Not just for the sake of society, but also for the sake of farming
itself—because it, too, needs insects."
"The evidence is clear: pesticide use is wiping out insect populations and
ecosystems around the world, and threatening food production," Mute Schimpf,
food and farming campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe, said in a
statement.
"A handful of corporations control the bulk of pesticide supply, and if left
unchecked will continue to use their immense political influence to lock in
a system of industrial farming which will continue to wipe out nature and
destroy rural communities," she continued.
One area of reform that would address deforestation and the resulting insect
habitat losses is curbing meat consumption and therefore the huge swathes of
land on which genetically modified animal feed is grown. "If the developed
world were to consume less meat and if agricultural products were no longer
used as fuel," says the report, "the pressure on the land areas could be
reduced considerably."
Insect Atlas lays out a number of solutions for global policymakers to pursue. They include:
Schimpf spoke about those solutions and the report on Euronews Tuesday:
"If we continue using pesticides so heavily, farmers will lose these pollinators."
What solutions are being proposed?
Cut pesticide use by 80% by 2030, and support farmers in a Just Transition
towards agroecology.
Schimpf also drew renewed attention to the Save Bees and Farmers European
Citizens Initiative. It's centered on three key demands: a phase-out of the
use of synthetic pesticides; measures to increase biodiversity; and support
for farmers.
As of press time, the petition has over 355,000 signatures.
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