Scottish ministers are under mounting pressure to defy the Westminster government and back a European ban on toxic pesticides which are blamed for killing bees.
A powerful coalition of environmental groups is urging the Scottish Environment Secretary, Richard Lochhead, to support a move by the European Commission to restrict the use of nicotine-based nerve agents designed to kill insects that prevent crops from growing.
Lochhead has supported Westminster's rejection of a ban, stressing there are "gaps" in the science and concerns for farmers. But the Sunday Herald understands some of his senior officials now regard restrictions as inevitable.
Environmentalists point to more than 30 scientific studies, including some from Scottish universities, suggesting the pesticides are harming bees and other wildlife. Bees and other pollinating insects such as butterflies, moths and hoverflies are vital to the production of food, and are reckoned to be worth £43 million a year to the Scottish economy.
Chemicals called neonicotinoids are made by multi-national pesticide companies to paralyse insects. With sales of more than £1 billion a year, they are the world's most widely used insecticide and are applied to 10% of Scotland's crop-growing land.
Now, a group of five environmental groups, led by the Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT), has written to Lochhead asking him to back the proposed ban. It is due to be voted on in Brussels in two weeks, and the pesticides have already been taken off the shelves by eight UK retailers, including B&Q and Homebase.
Simon Milne, the SWT's chief executive, said it was "ridiculous" that Scotland and the UK were still saying the chemicals are safe.
"What the Government and industry should be doing is helping farmers move away from neonicotinoids to a more sustainable means of pest control which is also beneficial to wildlife," he argued.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), which has come out in favour of a ban, warned that the damage being done to pollinators was now apparent.
"Scotland is home to many bee species which are now scarce and declining across the UK," said RSPB Scotland's director, Stuart Housden. "The Scottish Government has a key role to play, not least in offering its full support for the European Commission's proposed recommendations restricting the use of neonicotinoids."
Other groups backing the ban are Buglife, Butterfly Conservation Scotland and Friends Of The Earth Scotland. They have also found an ally in the SNP MEP, Alyn Smith.
"I have no doubt the Scottish Government will be more interested in putting the health of bees and our environment first rather than allow the UK to decide for us," he told the Sunday Herald.
"To use the incomplete science as grounds for delay is just a shoddy lobbying tactic, and we owe it to Scotland's bees, and indeed ourselves, to act now."
However, the proposed ban was fiercely criticised by the Crop Protection Association, which represents the pesticide companies. It was "a disproportionate and alarmingly simplistic reaction to a complex problem," said the association's chief executive, Nick von Westenholz.
"The reasons there are declines in some pollinator populations, for instance bees, are complicated and not well understood, and include factors such as habitat loss, viruses and parasites."
He argued that pesticides are "vital tools" for farmers and removing them could have "serious consequences" for access to safe and affordable food.
The Scottish Government said its position was informed by scientific advisers. They had highlighted "concerns and gaps in the knowledge", said a spokesman.
"It is important to consider the potential risks to bees from neonicotinoids under field conditions. We have asked the advisory committee on pesticides for further urgent advice to help inform the Scottish Government's view on next steps."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article