Farmers in Drenthe must stop using fourteen specific pesticides. Environmental organization wants to measure that = know. The citizens’ initiative wants to drastically reduce the use of pesticides to protect people, animals and the environment.
The 14 specific substances would be harmful to vulnerable Natura2000 areas. “These means are known for moving over large distances. So they also end up in vulnerable Natura2000 areas. In particular, insects suffer from it,” explains Geert Starre Van Measurement = knowing. “That is why we want the substances to be banned.” The environmental organization relies on the Aarhus Convention, which states that everyone has the right to live in a healthy environment.
These are substances that are all permitted in the Netherlands to combat diseases or teasing in agriculture. Measuring = knowing all provinces has written with the request to prohibit the funds. Such a ban makes it easier to check whether a farmer is in violation or not. The provinces should then check and maintain it.
All provinces regard the request as inadmissible. It would be a ‘generally binding regulation’, just like traffic rules. Everyone must also adhere to that and no objection can be submitted. Measure that moisture = know. The province of Drenthe is the first province to be taken to court today.
The province was represented by two legal advisers. They explain that setting such a prohibition is difficult to maintain. Then every grower and every plot should be checked. That makes the complex. The judge does not just go along with that. “The case has been playing since 2021. If you can’t do anything at an individual level, then there is a duty to do something against the deterioration of the Natura2000 areas in his generality. Should the college not have to wonder what is possible? The court does not see that the College of the Provincial Executive has wondered these things.”
According to Starre it is not that complicated. “Start with an obligation to investigate. Find out where those substances end up and how harmful they are. Only when you can prove that the substances do not end up in vulnerable nature can you grant a permit as a province.”
The judge will rule in six weeks. If measuring = knowing the case wins, then that has legal consequences for all provinces.