FRANCE-BEES/RESCUE France to ban use of several insecticides to protect declining bee population

Record ID: 151003

  • Title: FRANCE-BEES/RESCUE France to ban use of several insecticides to protect declining bee population
  • Date: 12th June 2015
  • Summary: SACLAY, FRANCE (JUNE 9, 2015) (REUTERS) BEES ON BEEHIVE (SOUNDBITE) (French) BEEKEEPER, JULIEN PERRIN, SAYING: "Our local bees are affected by new diseases they did not know in the past and they have become sensitive to them. The same thing happened when we went to the United States and brought the smallpox which killed all the Indians. Due to Chinese products there are pl
  • Embargoed: 27th June 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA1LYOYP7553ZFPPWC5SWDG16NN
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: France is following in the footsteps of the United States after Portland earlier this year banned the use of an insecticide on city lands blamed by conservationists as a factor in the decline of honey bees in recent years.
    Over the past few years, bee populations have been dying at a rate the U.S. government says must be addressed, and finding an answer has become a politically charged debate.
    And on the other side of the Atlantic, beekeepers and environmental groups blame a class of insecticides used on crops such as corn as well as on plants in lawns and gardens for the dramatic decrease of France's honey bee population whose mortality rate has been at 30 percent in the past few years.
    French Ecology Minister Segolene Royal launched a new programme last month to protect bees and other pollinators which are threatened by this insecticide called neonicotinoids.
    Neonicotinoids are synthetic chemicals that act systemically, meaning they are absorbed and spread through the plant's vascular system, which becomes toxic for insects sucking the circulating fluids or ingesting parts of it.
    Beekeepers say the neonicotinoids affect bees' nervous systems which eventually lead to their death.
    Royal's programme, which spans over a period of three years, is aimed at regenerating green spaces alongside the 12,000 kilometres of France's national road network, by letting grass and flowers grow longer and thereby increase the variety of crop pollinators, to reverse the dying trend of bees.
    The European Commission, the EU executive, placed restrictions on three neonicotinoid pesticides from Dec. 1, 2013, citing worries about their impact on bees, and Royal said France would extend the restrictions until the end of this year.
    In addition to the pesticides, beekeepers say French bees are increasingly succumbing the effects of a parasite from Asia called Varroa which is considered particularly damaging and responsible for importing new diseases to the country.
    "Our local bees are affected by new diseases they did not know in the past and they have become sensitive to them. The same thing happened when we went to the United States and brought the smallpox which killed all the Indians. Due to Chinese products there are plenty of Asian diseases which kill our bees," said Julien Perrin, a young beekeeper who has a farm outside Paris.
    Perrin said he made the stinging observation that in recent years, 30 percent of his colonies had disappeared.
    "It's hard to live. Just imagine, as if they were cows for example, we have 30 percent of the livestock which disappears so it's necessary for us to multiply the colonies of bees," he said.
    NGO Greenpeace said apart from banning the killer insecticides, it was the country's agricultural functioning that needs to be overhauled.
    "What is really needed is a reviewing of the agricultural system, an agricultural plan in favour of pollen carriers and bees. And above all -- that was the goal of Segolene Royal with this plan -- to make France the leading country for a European ban of neonicotinoids, so we hope that this intention will bring about a quick decision," said Anais Fourest, head of agriculture campaigns at Greenpeace.
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