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Before the vote on the EU proposal for a regulation on the sustainable use of plant protection products (SUR), Klaus Schneider, President of the German Winegrowers' Association (DWV), has once again spoken out against the restrictions planned in it. "We continue to reject all bans on the use of plant protection products as well as the reference to territorial settings", he explained. The compromise proposals presented in the EU Environment Committee were not an improvement on the status quo, but "a punishment of the situation of those who already implemented sustainable management measures in the past".
DWV currently expects more than 30 percent of German vineyards to be affected and rejects bans on the use of plant protection products in protected areas. The DWV pleads for a use of plant protection "that is oriented towards the protective character of the respective area. Bans counteract the protection goal and deprive winegrowing enterprises of their livelihood".
"The use of plant protection products must be possible in all areas. Otherwise, there is a threat of the end of any cultivation of affected vineyards and thus the abandonment of the structurally rich landscape worthy of protection and, in the medium term, of the downstream economic sectors," Schneider appealed. Especially steep slope areas such as the Moselle, Middle Rhine, Neckar and Ahr "already have a high ecological value today". However, this is endangered by the SUR rules. "Unfortunately, we do not see our demands for sustainable management sufficiently taken into account in the ideas of the EU Parliament's Environment Committee," said Schneider.
"It is only through the use as vineyard land that biodiversity is demonstrably promoted in many protected areas. Especially in locations with dry stone walls. These have secured the steep slopes of the vineyards for centuries and provide habitats for animals worthy of protection such as the wall lizard or the Apollo butterfly," explained DWV President Klaus Schneider.
(uka / Source: DWV)