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Since the early 1990s, pesticide usage on oil seed rape (OSR) has increased significantly in terms of the number of times treated, weight per hectare applied and number of active substances. Although Budge et al (2015) established that neonicotinoid seed coatings enabled farmers to reduce the number of insecticide sprays on OSR, this is not evident from the survey data after 2000 when neonicotinoid seed treatments were introduced.

For Numeniini, a family of birds that includes Curlews and Godwits, new research indicates that these birds are at risk. A recent study by Royal Society for the Preservation of Birds (BirdLife in the UK), British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), and the International Wader Study Group suggests they could actually be one of the most threatened families of birds on earth. The study consulted over 100 experts who assessed the threats to Numeniini throughout their migratory regions and found that seven of the thirteen species are threatened with extinction.

Where have all those chirpy little sparrows gone? Once a common sight, hopping away on the verandahs and chirping joyously from tree branches, the sight of a sparrow (Passer domesticus) has over the years become a rarity.The tentacles of development spreading with fast paced concretisation of the city have ended in choking away one of mankind’s oldest associate. As the city prepares to join the World Sparrow Day on March 20, it is left to a few individuals concerned at the fast decline in sparrow population, to bring them into focus.

Comments from the Ontario Beekeepers’ Association, to the The House of Commons Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food Hearing, on Canada's Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) proposal to phase out the main uses of imidacloprid.

Dear Members of the Standing Committee,

This report reviews the existing scientific evidence regarding the impact of organic food on human health from an EU perspective and the potential contribution of organic management practices to the development of healthy food systems. Very few studies have directly addressed the effect of organic food on human health. They indicate that organic food may reduce the risk of allergic disease and obesity, but this evidence is not conclusive. Consumers of organic food tend to have healthier dietary patterns overall.

“I am Assam’s State bird Deo hah. My current status is threatened. Please do not kill us, nor collect our ducklings or eggs” – reads a new campaign poster of wildlife NGO Aaranyak, starkly describing the current status of the State bird, the white-winged wood duck (Asarcornis scutulata). As the rhino continues to be the focus of wildlife conservation in the State, the numbers of the white-winged wood duck are dwindling slowly and silently with little or no attention coming from the State Government.

The number of nesting wading birds in South Florida, a key measure of Everglades health, sunk to a decade-long low last year, according to a South Florida Water Management District report released this week, the latest in a 22-year tally. Just over 26,000 nesting birds were counted across the Everglades and in Lake Okeechobee last year, well below the 10-year annual average of about 42,000.

Expenditure for discovery and development of a new crop protection product is now approaching the $ 300 million mark, while at the same time underpinning information gaps in environmental safety assessment. Large information gaps also exist for the safety of a vast number of existing chemicals in commerce. Addressing safety information gaps of new and existing chemicals with increased conventional toxicity testing would skyrocket costs and animal usage and contravene the 3Rs principles to refine, reduce, and replace animal testing.

The idea that pesticides are essential to feed a fast-growing global population is a myth, according to UN food and pollution experts. A new report, being presented to the UN human rights council on Wednesday, is severely critical of the global corporations that manufacture pesticides, accusing them of the “systematic denial of harms”, “aggressive, unethical marketing tactics” and heavy lobbying of governments which has “obstructed reforms and paralysed global pesticide restrictions”.