Lack of research, weak regulation and a mix of over 150 pesticides - all the ingredients needed for a harmful cocktail of chemicals used in our countryside

Lack of research, weak regulation and a mix of over 150 pesticides - all the ingredients needed for a harmful cocktail of chemicals used in our countryside - RSPB

2 turtle doves sitting on a metal rod with clear blue sky behind — (RSPB images)

Every year over 150 different pesticides are used across the UK’s countryside in a combined quantity that could cover all UK farmland over ten times every year but there are major gaps in the understanding of how this cocktail of chemicals is affecting wildlife.

The RSPB is concerned that the risk assessment process for pesticides does not adequately assess the real-world impacts of the mix of chemicals being used across the UK.

When we only know the tip of the iceberg of what pesticides are doing to our natural world, and over half of farmland species are in decline, it is time for the governments of the UK to support farmers in reducing their use of pesticides as well as improving our testing and understanding of what we are using on our land.

Today, the RSPB has published a comprehensive review of studies looking at the harmful effect of pesticides on wildlife and sets out why the current risk assessments are not protecting wildlife from these chemicals.

The report comes 60 years after Rachel Carson published Silent Spring, the world’s first wake-up call that pesticides were having unexpected, and previously unknown, side effects on wildlife and people. Six decades later over 150 different pesticides are used across the UK’s countryside in a combined quantity that could cover all UK farmland over ten times every year. However, the RSPB’s review reveals that there are still major gaps in the understanding of what this combination of chemicals is doing to our land, wildlife and food chains.

This is of grave concern to the public, as 72 per cent of land in the UK is managed for agriculture with a third of this being used for growing crops and we need our politicians to take action on this. Arable farmland is the type of land where the nature crisis is being felt most keenly where populations of farmland birds have more than halved on average since 1970. Both within the UK and across Europe insect populations are showing dramatic declines, and not just within those species being targeted by pesticides.