Recognize the responsibility of pesticide producers in the decline of field birds, and obtain redress. This is what the League for the Protection of Birds (LPO) hopes by bringing to court in Lyon, Friday, May 21, Bayer and Nufarm, the two main producers in France of imidacloprid. This particularly toxic neonicotinoid insecticide is the most widely used in the agricultural sector. Four companies importing this substance are also affected by the proceeding.
“We keep repeating that neonicotinoids have a dramatic impact on biodiversity, explains Allain Bougrain-Dubourg, President of the LPO. Turning to the law is our ultimate weapon when everything we have tried previously has failed. ” According to the association Interested in Acting, which legally supports the LPO, this is the first action against agrochemicals for damage to biodiversity. “It is a question of opening the litigation path for an effective repair of the ecological damage caused by the massive commercialization of neonicotinoids”, she specifies.
Birds living in agricultural environments are the most affected by the decline that has struck avifauna since the 1990s. In 2018, researchers warned of the disappearance “At breakneck speed” birds from the French countryside: on average, their populations have fallen by a third in fifteen years. It was also in the early 1990s that the neonicotinoids were introduced, a new generation of persistent, systemic and neurotoxic pesticides. Since then, their dangerousness for pollinating insects, and in particular for bees, has been demonstrated and in 2018 the European Union banned the use of three of them, including imidacloprid.
But beyond insects, neonicotinoids also have deleterious effects on many species. Imidacloprid is used as a seed coating. However, ingesting these seeds can be fatal for birds. “Five seeds of corn kill a partridge and five seeds of wheat kill a lark”, specifies Vincent Bretagnolle, research director at the Center for Biological Studies of Chizé (CNRS).
Non-compliance with European regulations
By ingesting contaminated insects or plants, birds can also gradually accumulate imidacloprid in their bodies, which will cause the appearance of nervous disorders – such as the inability to fly or navigate – or the inability to navigate. reproduction. “Multiple studies have shown that these effects are numerous and varied”, adds Bretagnolle. Finally, by contaminating all environments and causing a drop in the abundance of insect populations, imidacloprid reduces the food resources of birds.
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