Engaging stakeholders in pesticide risk assessment for Spanish wildlife
Discussion at the SYBERAC case study workshop in central Spain
On 24 June 2024, the Institute of Game and Wildlife Research (IREC) in Ciudad Real, Spain, hosted the first workshop with stakeholders linked to the SYBERAC case studies 1B (cumulative risk assessment for wildlife in winter cereals) and 2B (risk assessment for amphibians in the interface between aquatic and terrestrial environments). Participating stakeholders included farmers (the national farmers’ union ASAJA and the local farmers’ cooperative from Ciudad Real), industry (the Spanish association for plant protection -AEPLA- and BASF), risk assessors from the Spanish national registration office (INIA-CSIC), the regional government of Castilla-La Mancha, the Castilla-La Mancha institute for agri-environmental research (IRIAF), the Spanish Ornithological Society (SEO) and the Spanish Herpetological Society (AHE). The workshop was performed by the SYBERAC partners from UCLM.
The workshop established the local stakeholder forum, which will guarantee the involvement of the relevant sectors in the development case studies and wo case study and an adequate transfer of knowledge. The discussion focused, on the one hand, on the ways through which the different stakeholders can contribute to the case study implementation. On the other hand, the stakeholders expressed focal problems associated with plant-protection product (PPP) use concerning biodiversity protection. Possible solutions to those focal problems that can emerge from SYBERAC activities were identified.
The concluding remarks can be summarised as:
All stakeholders have a clear disposal to collaborate with SYBERAC.
The benefits that SYBERAC and the implementation of a systems-based Environmental Risk Assessment (ERA) can provide to stakeholders must be highlighted.
Focal problems related to the efficacy of ERA in preventing PPP effects on biodiversity, or to the conflicts resulting from an incomplete view of the reality across sectors, are common to several stakeholders, even if their perspectives differ.