Raad van State’s decision on pesticides can have national consequences – but the case has not yet exploded

Six years and many inverted flags after the famous nitrogen ruling of 2019 threatens a new hot chemical issue. On Wednesday, the Council of State ruled on appeal with possibly major consequences for agriculture throughout the country. The judgment of the highest administrative court: it is ‘not excluded’ that the use of pesticides has negative consequences on protected nature reserves. For example, mortality of protected species.

As long as there are indications that pesticides can cause damage to protected nature, growers must demonstrate that their pesticide use does not cause negative effects. In some cases that will not be possible. Then a grower must apply for a nature permit to spray pesticides that can be refused due to possible damage to nature areas.

It is crazy how much responsibility is now being pushed to a farmer

Lily growing in Vledder

The ruling of the Council of State is primarily about a lily grower at the Drenthe town of Vledder, close to the Natura 2000 area Holtingerveld. In 2018, Milieudefensie requested the College of Provincial Executive of Drenthe to act against pesticides use of the grower because that would affect the nearby nature reserve. The college refused, but in 2021 the court of the Northern Netherlands made it right to the right of the Northern Netherlands. The province appealed, but now the Council of State is also largely in favor of the environmental group.

In the issue of possible damage to protected nature, the distance between parcel and nature reserve was important. For example, the province of Drenthe argued that a distance of 250 meters to a nature reserve would be sufficient to exclude negative consequences, but the judge sees no scientific substantiation for that. A recent research From Utrecht University, that position seems to support: pesticider residues in the air and dust hardly decrease in the first 250 to 500 meters around a plot. Measuring the citizens’ initiative = knowing that is also involved in the case shows in own measurements that pesticider tests can be found ‘miles deep’ in kind 2000 sites. The Council sees that in Holtingerveld « concentrations of crop protection products have been found that may have negative effects on insects, among other things. »

Impact on lily growing

It is unclear how many farmers are hit by the ruling. According to Henk Baptist, who as a lawyer of Measuring = knows the environmental groups, a permit requirement will apply to all types of agriculture everywhere – not only in lily cultivation. But « everyone is going to read it in their own way. You will get all kinds of follow -up discussions. »

« I can certainly go along with the fact that in certain cases the ruling can have major consequences, » says Edwin Alblas, associate professor of Environmental Law at the University of Wageningen. « In the Netherlands, nature is so bad that every extra bit of impact makes the bucket go further. But it is not that the situation is now at the trip for every farmer. » He expects that the statement « in principle for lily cultivation » has an impact – and that obtaining a permit for lily growers will become difficult.

Nevertheless, the Council of State seems to offer a way out to lily growers, such as those in Vledder, if they can show that their resources do not cause nature damage. But Baptist has « no idea » how a grower could do that. « It is crazy how much responsibility is now being pushed to a farmer. »

For that reason mentions Also agricultural and horticulture organization LTO the pronunciation « in practice impracticable ». « How does an entrepreneur substantiate that everyone can be excluded, theoretical risk? This statement makes a paralyzing principle of the ‘precautionary principle’. »

The case law will get busy, Baptist expects. « On the one hand there is now a permit requirement, and on the other hand in implementation are numerous ambiguities. » He expects ‘hundreds’ enforcement requests from various environmental groups. In that lawsuits rain, his organization will certainly measure = knowing a role.

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