Effective Protection of Pollinators

WASHINGTON, Sept. 29, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Center for Regulatory Effectiveness (CRE) applauds President Obama for directing federal agencies to investigate and make a definitive statement on the causes behind bee health decline. Accurate scientific identification of the problems afflicting honey bees is essential for ensuring that scarce resources are effectively expended to protect American pollinators.

To provide the President's Pollinator Health Task Force with the most useful information, CRE has reviewed and evaluated the results of bee health analyses conducted by governmental agencies around the world. CRE has previously contributed to the pollinator protection investigations by many of these agencies. Our multi-nation analysis is contained in the attached twenty page Memorandum. http://www.thecre.com/oira_pd/?p=11818  

The governmental reviews have largely focused on assessing whether Varroa mites (Varroa Destructor) or the neonicotinoid class of pesticides are the primary factor behind bee health decline.

One of the government bee health decline assessments we analyzed, performed by New Zealand's agricultural regulatory agency, is of particular significance to regulators everywhere because,

• Neonicotinoids have been used throughout the country for many years without a decline in bee health, and

• Bee health took a dramatic downward turn after Varroa Destructor entered the country and infested bee colonies.

The government of New Zealand concluded:

"Neonicotinoids have been used in New Zealand since the early 1990s with little controversy. Suspected problems have come to light in the EU much more recently. We heard that when anecdotal evidence of losses are investigated, the causes seem to be mainly Varroa or starvation rather than pesticides. A recent report by the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority into the effects of neonicotinoids on bees in Australia, where the insecticides are used extensively, has also found little evidence of a problem."

["Briefing on the health of bees: Report of the Primary Production Committee," New Zealand House of Representatives, http://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-nz/50DBSCH_SCR56864_1/34a0a5f2526c4db590c2b0330083d8af2313b150]

The record established by regulators is clear; the Pollinator Health Task Force should rapidly propose for public review and comment, a comprehensive Varroa control program.

SOURCE The Center for Regulatory Effectiveness