Beleid en debat

Un estudio realizado por el grupo de Ecotoxicología del Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos (IREC) de la Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha advierte de los efectos nocivos en la perdiz roja (Alectoris rufa) que puede tener el consumo de grandes cantidades de semillas tratadas con plaguicida en poco espacio de tiempo.

La Federación regional de Caza hace un llamamiento al sector de la agricultura y de la ganadería para desechar el uso de pesticidas, herbicidas y fungicidas que arrasan con la vida cinegética. Denuncia prácticas que «están haciendo que el medio ambiente pierda muchas especies antaño abundantes por culpa de una agricultura demasiado beligerante y casi siempre intolerante con toda propuesta que no signifique aumentar la producción de su cosecha».

In Deutschland sind 70 Prozent der natürlichen Lebensräume bestandsgefährdet, zwei Drittel der Amphibien- und Reptilienarten als gefährdet eingestuft oder vom Aussterben bedroht, 30 Prozent der Farne und Blütenpflanzen sind bestandsgefährdet. Ebenso stehen zwei Drittel der Tier- und Pflanzenarten des Offenlandes auf den Roten Listen der bedrohten Arten. In Deutschland ist für die Erhaltung der biologischen Vielfalt insbesondere die Art und Weise der praktizierten Landwirtschaft ausschlaggebend, fast die Hälfte der Landesfläche ist Agrarfläche (Europäische Union: 43 Prozent). Die nationale Biodiversitätsstrategie trägt dieser Bedeutung Rechnung, Ziele zur Erhöhung des Anteils an Grünland oder Streuobstwiesen wurden vereinbart. Die Zusagen aber werden nicht eingehalten. Die Landwirtschaft in der Bundesrepublik muss, um einen signifikanten Beitrag zur Sicherung der Biodiversität zu leisten, im Rahmen einer Agrarwende weg von der intensiven Landwirtschaft hin zu einer nachhaltigen extensiven Landwirtschaft transformiert werden. Dies beinhaltet eine umfassende Veränderung der Art zu wirtschaften, speziell aber den Stopp des Einsatzes von chemisch-synthetischen Pestiziden.

"There is a recent report from the policy department of the European Parliament, published last month. It is entitled: Existing Scientific Evidence of the Effects of Neonicotinoid Pesticides on Bees and it gives a very up-to-date picture of current research. It has 48 references to scientific papers, mostly published between 2009 and 2012. These describe the evidence on which the descriptions of the effects on bees, including bumblebees, of low doses of what I am going to call "NNs" are based. The case seems to be clear that the use of these chemicals should be reduced and/or further controlled. Those that are shown to be most damaging should be banned. There is enough evidence, I feel."

Recently, several sources have suggested that Eastern Kingsnakes (Lampropeltis getula) have declined over a substantial portion of their range in the southeastern United States, particularly in Florida. However, published evidence for L. getula declines or their potential causes are limited. We monitored the status of a population of L. getula on the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site (SRS) in Aiken, South Carolina, USA, from 1975 to 2006. Herpetofaunal populations on the Savannah River Site have been protected from the pressures of collecting and development since 1951 due to site access restrictions. Here, we document a decline in both abundance and body condition of L. getula
inhabiting the vicinity of a large isolated wetland over the past three decades. Because this L. getula population was protected from anthropogenic habitat degradation, collection, and road mortality, we are able to exclude these factors as possible causes of the documented decline.

Virtually every past civilization has eventually undergone collapse, a loss of socio-political-economic complexity usually accompanied by a dramatic decline in population size. Some, such as those of Egypt and China, have recovered from collapses at various stages; others, such as that of Easter Island or the Classic Maya, were apparently permanent. All those previous collapses were local or regional; elsewhere, other societies and civilizations persisted unaffected. Sometimes, as in the Tigris and Euphrates valleys, new civilizations rose in succession. In many, if not most, cases, overexploitation of the environment was one proximate or an ultimate cause. But today, for the first time, humanity's global civilization — the worldwide, increasingly interconnected, highly technological society in which we all are to one degree or another, embedded — is threatened with collapse by an array of environmental problems. Humankind finds itself engaged in what Prince Charles described as ‘an act of suicide on a grand scale’, facing what the UK's Chief Scientific Advisor John Beddington called a ‘perfect storm’ of environmental problems.