icon-honeybee  icon-butterfly  icon-moth  icon-bumblebee icon-swallow icon-bat

Ban With A Plan

Ban With A Plan

Join us as we try to save our pollinators with this comprehensive five-step plan.
;

Recent Developments

Grow It! Don’t Mow It!

Canada has 1.4 million kilometres of roads and 6.2 million backyards. This represents a tremendous opportunity for pollinator conservation. CWF has lots of great resources for rights-of-way managers and property owners to help you along the path.

Make a pledge to help create Canada’s Great Pollinator Pathway. When we reduce mowing and seed with native wildflowers, we can help declining bee and butterfly populations recover.

Visit HelpthePollinators.ca for more information and to make the pledge. #GrowItDontMowIt.

Learn More

By The Numbers

%

Percentage of invertebrate pollinator species – particularly bees and butterflies – facing extinction.

%

Percentage of vertebrate pollinators (like birds and bats) threatened with extinction globally.

%

Flowering plants across the globe that are dependent entirely or in part on animal pollination.

Five-Step Plan

In an open letter to the Prime Minister of Canada, the Canadian Wildlife Federation along with 15 non-profit environmental and human health organizations signed their support to urge our government to take immediate action to end the use of neonicotinoid insecticides in Canada in response to recent international developments and significant evidence of serious harm.

In addition, one of CWF’s scientists joined over 200 scientists in an open letter published in the journal Science to urge for immediate action from governments around the world to create national and international agreements to greatly restrict the use of neonics.

We’ve developed a five-step plan to not just ban neonics, but also work with farmers and policy-makers and help the environment recover from the devastating effects of these pesticides.

Ban the use of neonics

The Canadian Wildlife Federation calls for a legislated, national ban on the use of all forms of neonicotinoid pesticides in agriculture, horticulture, turf production and golf courses. Under the ban, emergency use of neonics would be permitted for a limited number of years, but only under cases of severe pest outbreak and with a prescription from a certified agronomist.
Learn More

Recover Affected Species

Recover species impacted by neonics, including wild bees, hoverflies, other insect pollinators, aquatic insects, and species experiencing the indirect effects of neonics due to reduced food availability, such as birds, bats and fish.
Learn More

Encourage Research and Development on Safer Pest Control Technologies

Support the development of pest-specific chemicals (or biological agents) with limited environmental effects – to encourage the development of longer term, directed products.

Give Farmers Alternatives

We are encouraging banning the use of neonicotinoids (neonics), but a major component of this is a plan that helps support farmers in transitioning to alternatives to neonics while ensuring crop yields and quality. These supports include: extending the patent period for less harmful and/or better targeted insecticides so these products are more widely available; encouraging government programs to support integrated pest management and alternatives to neonicotinoids; improving agricultural extension on insect management; improving insurance programs to cover potential losses. More elements of the Plan are working with government, industry and others to better understand effects on non-target species, to improve academic and public scrutiny of studies by pesticide manufacturers, and establishment of an oversight committee without ties to industry.

Reform How the Government Protects Our Food Supply

Improve risk assessment methods for pesticides, including oversight and greater transparency in how pesticides are licensed and regulated, to ensure the seriously harmful pesticides are not licensed by the Canadian government.  End the licensing of systemic pesticides.

Step 1

Banning Neonics

97,890 supporters joined our petition for a legislated, national ban on the use of all forms of neonicotinoid pesticides in agriculture, horticulture, turf production and golf courses. Under the CWF proposal, emergency use of neonics would be permitted for a limited number of years, but only under cases of severe pest outbreak and with a prescription from a certified agronomist.
Learn More

Step 2

Pollinator Recovery

120,000 Canadian Wildlife Federation supporters signed our petition asking for a national pollinator recovery action plan! Learn more about the petition and how pollinator recovery works.
Learn More

What You Can Do!

Be Informed

Take Action

Tell Others