Government Approves Use of Bee-Killing Pesticide
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By he Government’s decision to permit STUART BLACKMAN, “Neonicotinoids not only threaten bees, JAMES FAIR, CHUCK T the use of a banned insecticide on GRAHAM, BEN HOARE sugar beet crops this year has alarmed & CATHERINE SMALLEY they are extremely harmful to aquatic WILDNEWS many conservationists. Defra announced in early January that wildlife, because the pesticide leaches the emergency use of the neonicotinoid KEEPING YOU UP TO DATE WITH THE BIG NATURE STORIES thiamethoxam would be allowed because into the soil and then the waterways.” this year’s beet harvest has been badly affected by a virus spread by aphids. Highly lethal neurotoxins, neonicotinoids extremely harmful to aquatic wildlife, Under EU law, the ‘precautionary LEGISLATION are so powerful that one teaspoon is because the majority of the pesticide principle’ recognises that environmental enough to kill 1.25 billion bees. leaches into the soil and then into regulation is justified even where there These insecticides have been in use waterways,” says Wildlife Trusts chief is no absolute proof to support it. Post since 1994, and after the evidence for executive Craig Bennett. Brexit, Shardlow argues that this concept, Government approves their environmental impact became Buglife CEO Matt Shardlow believes as set out in the UK’s Environment Bill, is overwhelming, the EU banned their use that our departure from the EU may result “crippled by a series of restrictions”. on flowering plants in 2013 and then on in an increase in the use of insecticides in In a statement, Defra said the quantity all outdoor crops in 2018. the UK, because of the power of the agri- of thiamethoxam used would be below use of bee-killing At time of print, The Wildlife Trusts industry. “The EU is just about big enough the usual commercial rate and that intends to challenge the Government’s to stand up to the pesticide companies; farmers were restricted from planting any decision, arguing that environment member states are not,” he says. flowering crops in the same field within secretary George Eustice had not The UK lacks the independent evidence- 22 months (32 months for oilseed rape) pesticide demonstrated that there were no gathering and assessment capacity of the in order to limit the possible exposure of alternatives to using the insecticides. EU, Shardlow adds, and he questions pollinators to this deadly insecticide. There’s also deep concern that Defra whether ministers will be “brave enough” James Fair The Wildlife Trusts is planning a legal challenge anticipates the derogation could be to restrict the use of insecticides if they after the Government’s decision to allow the permitted for the next three years. do not have sufficiently watertight legal FIND OUT MORE emergency application of a banned insecticide. “Neonicotinoids not only threaten evidence to contest challenges by agri- Use of neonicotinoids in the EU: Early Bumblebee: Andrew Mason/FLPA; beet: Emeric Fohlen/NurPhoto/Getty beet: Emeric Mason/FLPA; Andrew Bumblebee: Early bees [as well as other insects], they are industry companies and lobby groups. bit.ly/3aNuShD Main: bees may be at risk. Inset: beet crops hit hard by aphid- transmitted virus that blocks photosynthesis. April 2021 April 2021 BBC Wildlife 23 WILD NEWS WILD NEWS Dall’s sheep is just one species found within Alaska’s ANWR. ECOLOGY CONSERVATION DID YOU Biden halts oil drilling Bats bounce back with KNOW? All UK bats feed on in Arctic wildlife refuge insects and a common moorland restoration pipistrelle can eat n his very first day in office, industry, then no more than 3,000 in O US President Joe Biden put place in America Five species of bat recorded following a single night. a temporary halt to oil and gas is safe.” revegetation of Peak District plateau. drilling in the roadless expanse Under former of the Arctic National Wildlife US President Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska. Donald Trump’s ou may be familiar with The five species recorded were insect community, which the bats For more than 40 years, the administration, oil and gas Ythe benefits of moorland common pipistrelle, soprano are beginning to feed on and so 19.3 million-acre ANWR has exploration leases went up restoration, such as carbon pipistrelle, noctule, brown long- making the area their home. been the subject of a political for bid in January but fell far sequestration and rewetting the eared bat and one of the Myotis Tom Spencer of Moors for the rollercoaster when it comes to short of their financial mark moors to help prevent flooding, but species. At 636m, Kinder Scout is Future Partnership’s science team whether to drill or not to drill. of $900 million. Many Alaskan conservationists in the Peak District the highest point in Derbyshire. is more used to putting probes The main region of contention politicians still argue drilling have discovered a less obvious Discovering bats at Kinder Scout into peat, measuring hydrology, is the vast coastal plain, also would be good for jobs and state beneficiary of revegetating the peat is the latest in a line of remarkable but the bat detector is just another known as the ‘1002 Area’, which revenue, and Republican Senator on Kinder Scout plateau: bats. successes, as these moorlands monitoring device for him. teems with braided rivers, lush Lisa Murkowski said “significant Moors for the Future Partnership recover from centuries of abuse. “Monitoring insect populations wetlands, ponds and boreal progress” has been made in the has been working with Derbyshire Large areas of these moors had is pretty complicated – it is not forests – but also potentially past month, with the lease sale Bat Group, and a bat detector placed been reduced to bare peat by years of something that we tend to do. But holds up to 11.8 billion barrels and issuance of leases. on the plateau has revealed that out industrial pollution. The restoration monitoring bats, we think, gives us of oil reserves. The ANWR is the largest of 17 species of bat in the UK, five are process begins with scattering an indication of the health of the “This is America’s last, best wildlife refuge in the USA, present on the plateau and foraging heather brash to establish some insect population,” says Spencer. place,” says Garrett Rose, staff home to denning polar bears there, suggesting they are living in cover and gully blocking to rewet This year, the plan is to put a attorney at Natural Resources and migrating herds of the area, not just passing through. the peat, then the bog-forming plant second detector on the bare peat Defense Council’s Alaska Porcupine caribou on which the “We didn’t really know whether sphagnum moss is introduced. control site and monitor bat Project. “If we can’t safeguard indigenous Gwich’in tribe rely bats were there or not, but we had Over time, biodiversity begins activity there. Andrew Griffiths the refuge from extractive for sustenance. Chuck Graham a sneaking suspicion that, after all to improve with other plants and the restoration work, they might shrubs taking hold, such as bog FIND OUT MORE Moors for the be,” says Alan Roe, a recorder at asphodel and cloudberry. These Future Partnership: bit.ly/3tDFyYK Derbyshire Bat Group. plants in turn attract a diverse Derbyshire Bat Group: bit.ly/3q6zy8I NEW SPECIES DISCOVERY IN NUMBERS Brookesia nana 60% WHAT IS IT? A tiny chameleon of blue whales in Canada’s Gulf the size of a seed could be a of St Lawrence have come contender for the title of the into contact with fishing ropes smallest reptile on Earth. The and nets, based on evidence male nano-chameleon has a of scarring. body just 13.5mm long, yet its genitals are one-fifth of its body 4,904km size, possibly allowing it to mate is the distance covered across Bat: Alan Roe; landscape: Moors for the Future Partnership the Future for Moors landscape: Alan Roe; Bat: with the larger female. England (in 17 months) by a white-tailed eagle released on WHERE IS IT? An international team of the Isle of Wight in 2019. eagle-eyed scientists spied the reptile Nose to tail, Brookesia nana within degraded montane rainforests is just 22mm. in northern Madagascar. Fortunately, 0 its habitat has been placed under rhino deaths due to poaching occurred in Kenya last year – In the Peak District, protection, but the researchers have brown long-eared bats recommended that the bijou chameleon the first time in more than 20 (inset) are among the is listed as Critically Endangered on the FIND OUT MORE years – prompting celebration species making the most IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Nature: nature.com/articles/ among local conservationists. of restored habitat. Chameleon: Frank Glaw/Zoologische Staatssammlung München; sheep: Chuck Graham; München; sheep: Chuck Graham; Staatssammlung Glaw/Zoologische Chameleon: Frank Catherine Smalley s41598-020-80955-1 24 BBC Wildlife April 2021 April 2021 BBC Wildlife 25 WILD NEWS CONSERVATION Platypus protected he government of Australia’s state Stressors include land clearance, bank been rejected, as that might have meant Tof Victoria has added to its list erosion, sedimentation, urbanisation, that platypuses were fine and doing of threatened species the platypus – river fragmentation, fishing by-catch, okay in Victoria,” says Gimesy, who following its nomination by wildlife pollution and climate change. The made the application over two years photographer and BBC Wildlife listing grants extra protection for ago. “But clearly this isn’t the case, and contributor Doug Gimesy. Victoria’s platypus habitat that makes me really sad.” Victoria’s Scientific Advisory “To be honest, I really wish I was The platypus also occurs in the states Committee, which assessed the evidence, wrong and that my nomination had of Queensland, New South Wales and concluded that Australia’s iconic egg- Tasmania.