Format: ORAL

Muir.D

Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, SA

Highly hazardous pesticides (HHPs) are used widely in South Africa, including the fynbos biome. There has been a global move through the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) programme of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and other organizations to ban, phase out and/or restrict the use of HHPs. The Global Harmonization System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) identifies the hazards and exposure risks of a number of pesticides and classifies them, into 10 hazard criteria (HC), where the first criterion deals with Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs), criterion 2 deals with acute toxicity to mammals and birds and the next 4 are chronic health exposure criteria, hazardgroups 7 and 8 deal with environmental exposure criteria and the criteria 9 is dioxins and 10 heavy metals. The identification and classification of HHPs are done using the 8 criteria developed by the Joint Meeting on Pesticide Management (JMPM) of the Food and Agriculture Organization and World Health Organization (FAO/WHO). The hazard criteria (HC) that will be concentrated on are HC 7 and HC 8 which deal with environmental toxicity and their impacts on fauna, flora, and ecosystem services. HHPs currently being used in the fynbos biome will be discussed together with their impacts on the ecosystem functioning in the fynbos biome. This is just one example of how pesticides negatively impact on biodiversity and ecosystems and have the abililty to alter ecosystems. Pesticides, biodiversity and climate are intrinsically linked. Lastly, recommendations will be discussed on phaseout options for these pesticides, and alternatives to these HHPs will be given using the Hierarch of Control (HOC) and Precautionary Principles, and mitigation measures on how to ensure compliance to the Paris Agreement targets with regards to temperatures and HHPs.