The aim of this campaign is to denounce the export of pesticides that are banned in Europe, yet exported to countries in the Global South, highlighting Belgium’s predominant role in this damaging trade.
Banned
A health and
environmental disaster
Although European legislation partially protects its citizens by banning the use of pesticides that are dangerous to humans and biodiversity, it curiously does not prohibit their production and export. In 2018, over 810,000 tonnes of banned pesticides were exported from the EU to the rest of the world. These banned pesticides are devastating the countries of the global South, and ironically, are coming back to Europe in the form of food residues in the products we import.
Belgium plays a major role in this trade by being Europe’s leading exporter of banned neonicotinoids, pesticides that are extremely toxic to bees and biodiversity, produced in Seneffe in Wallonia by Syngenta. In 2020, Belgium produced and exported over 4,000 tonnes of banned pesticides to countries in the Global South.
Humundi, in partnership with a coalition of NGOs, has called on Belgium to put an end to this toxic and immoral pesticide trade. Farmers are the first victims of this health and environmental disaster.
Belgium is acting totally inconsistently, continuing to sell deadly pesticides abroad that it no longer wants at home. It bears direct responsibility for the damage that these dangerous pesticides cause to humans and the environment.
Jonas Jaccard, advocacy officer at Humundi
Victory against pesticides: Belgium and Peru unite!
2023 marks the success of our campaign against the export of banned pesticides from the EU. Belgium was producing and exporting toxic pesticides, despite the fact that they were banned in the EU because of their harmful effects on health and the environment.
Thanks to coalition work, political meetings and extensive media coverage, the adoption of a Royal Decree will soon put an end to this. Its publication in the Official Journal in November 2023 symbolises the victory of Humundi and the stop-pesticides coalition.
The campaign in figures
21
Partners of the campaign
8000
Signatures
50
Media relays
But our fight goes on…
In Peru, our fight goes on. Work to monitor pesticide residues on supermarket shelves has revealed pesticide levels above the national standard. The results have raised public awareness and alerted the authorities to what has long been a health scandal.