A l'UM la science [S01-ep22]: Plant protection products: what impact on biodiversity?

[Podcast] - Published on May 27, 2022 in Entrepreneurship, Science-Society

This week on A l'UM la science, Wilfried Sanchez, Deputy Scientific Director ofIfremer, presents the results of the Inrae-Ifremer collective scientific assessment on the impact of plant protection products on biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Today we're taking you to the roots of biodiversity erosion, if we can even talk about erosion now that the figures tell us of collapse. In 2021, the Museum national d'histoire naturelle, theOffice français de la biodiversité and the Ligue pour la protection des oiseaux (LPO ) reported a 30% decline in bird populations in France in just 30 years. In the same year, Philippe Grandcolas, Director of the CNRS Institute of Systematics, Evolution and Biodiversity, spoke in an interview of " the insect apocalypse ", with population declines of up to 80% in certain French regions. The same applies to amphibians, with 32% of their species threatened, while the World Conservation Union stated in 2021 that at least a third of mammal species were also endangered.

We know the causes of this erosion, and we know them very well indeed, as they relate to our own human activities, foremost among which is the massive use of plant protection products. Every year, between 55,000 and 70,000 tonnes of plant protection products are sold and used in France. In 2020, the French Ministries of the Environment, Agriculture and Research commissioned Inrae and Ifremer to carry out a study on the impact of plant protection products on biodiversity and ecosystem services, from the area where they are applied to the marine environment.

Unsurprisingly, this report, presented on May 5, confirms that all terrestrial, aquatic and marine environments are contaminated by these products. We talk to Wilfried Sanchez, Deputy Scientific Director of the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea (Ifremer).

Impacts of plant protection products on biodiversity and ecosystem services: results of the INRAE-Ifremer collective scientific assessment - Ifremer press release
Summary of the collective expertise (14 pages)