#Save the bees

Help ban the neonics!

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Press Release

5 December 2017

Official launch of the Save the Bees Coalition

Who

The Save the Bees Coalition is a platform of European NGOs working to achieve a ban on neonicotinoids in the European Union. The Coalition also aims at implementing a better protection of pollinators against pesticides in general.

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The goal of the coalition is to bring together civil society organisations from all European Union (EU) countries so as to join efforts at local, regional, national and European levels in order to obtain a full ban on neonicotinoids, and a European pesticide policy that ends the use of bee-harming pesticides in Europe. Neonicotinoid insecticides include imidacloprid, clothianidin, thiamethoxam, thiacloprid and acetamiprid.

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Why

Neonicotinoids and other pesticides are major factors causing the decline in populations of honey bees, wild bees and other pollinators. This jeopardises our food sustainability and biodiversity. Neonicotinoids have been authorised more than 20 years ago because their impacts on bees were not fully assessed as the procedures for testing the safety of pesticides used rules that were partly written by the pesticide industry itself.

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Neonicotinoids have been authorised in the 1990’s in Europe. Their very high toxicity to insects, their persistance in soils and their high water solubility as well as their systemicity (they are absorbed by the plants and travel through the plant, contaminating pollen and nectar) make them among the most bee-harming pesticides every created. In 2013, the European Commission restricted neonicotinoids but new evidence shows that the remaining uses keep putting bees and the environment at risk. Only a complete ban on neonicotinoids will protect bees.

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When

In March 2017, the European Commission proposed to EU Member States to ban the use of the 3 most toxic neonicotinoids (imidacloprid, clothianidin and thiamethoxam). Member States will vote on this proposal within a few months, to decide whether to ban neonicotinoids or not. This is a momentum that civil society has to embrace to finally, after more than 20 years of biodiversity destruction, obtain a full ban on neonicotinoids.

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The pesticide industry is lobbying hard in order to keep their dangerous products on the European market. To secure a full ban on neonicotinoids, citizens must pressure their national governments to support it and to back effective rules for testing pesticides’ impacts on bees in order to stop the use of all bee-harming pesticides in Europe

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« Pollinators contribute to the production of more than 80% of cultivated plants. Without them, some of our healthiest food, including most fruits and vegetables would be hard to produce and more expensive Without them, more than 80% of wild plants could not reproduce… »
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members

join the coaliton

As an NGO, you can join our coalition by filling in the form, we will provide you with information to help you acting at your own level and make a change!

As an individual, please consult the list of national NGOs that are already part of the coalition. If your country does not appear, please contact Johanna (johanna.hausmann@wecf.org) who will indicate you how to make things move in your own country !

Join the Bee Coalition NOW !