Measuring = knowing is not only lily growers on the skin, other entrepreneurs in floriculture are also focused on the arrows. The environmental movement, which stands up for the interests of nature, will act from the province requirements for all decorative growers that use pesticides.
On Monday, measuring = knowing already sent an enforcement request to the province, in which it focused specifically on eighteen lily growers who use pesticides. The entrepreneurs do not have a permit for this. The province had not demanded it either. But after the court in the Northern Netherlands previously ruled that a permit was needed, the Council of State concluded the same this week.
Both judges believe that harmful effects of lily cultivation on nature cannot be excluded. Further research is needed to find out more about this. As long as this knowledge is missing, lily growers must apply for a nature permit for cultivation.
Measuring = knowing is not only planning to limit lily growers, because pesticides are also used by other decorative growers. “New enforcement requests are coming,” predicts Henk Baptist, lawyer in measuring = knowing. In such an enforcement request, the environmental movement, with the recent judgments of the judges, demands that the province forces growers to stop using resources.
At present, growers of the Council of State have the time to prove that there are no harmful effects for nature reserves. If that does not work, the grower must still apply for a nature permit from the province. In that case, the province must investigate whether there are effects of pesticides on Natura 2000.