Assessing risks to biodiversity from exposure to chemicals: where are we and where should we be going?

Why?

The EU commission is increasingly focusing on restoring and preserving biodiversity, as evidenced by several new strategic documents.  EU Biodiversity strategy, Farm to Fork, and the EU Chemical Strategy for Sustainability identify chemicals as (one of) the main drivers of biodiversity decline and set ambitious goals for reducing chemical input to the environment. For instance, the EU Biodiversity strategy aims for a 50% reduction in overall use and risk of chemical pesticides. In addition, academic groups highlight the role of chemicals in biodiversity declines (Groh et al. 2022), and call for a changed, stricter, more holistic assessment of risks from exposure to chemicals (Bruehl & Zahler 2019; Topping et al. 2020). However, we are yet to fully establish the quantitative link between biodiversity loss and chemical exposure for different taxa and systems. We also need to better understand how the current regulation concerning the placement of chemicals on the market addresses the risks to biodiversity and the targets set by the aforementioned documents. An example from EFSA includes defining Specific Protection Goals (SPGs) within the ecosystem services context which implicitly includes biodiversity. However, due to many definitions and scales of biodiversity, operationalizing these goals has been a challenge. Furthermore, an important point to consider are the tools that can facilitate quantitative linking between measurement and assessment endpoints. Finally, there are many ongoing research activities concerning questions of biodiversity (e.g., EU Horizon projects) that may have regulatory relevance and utility.

Groh, Ksenia, Colette Vom Berg, Kristin Schirmer, and Ahmed Tlili. "Anthropogenic chemicals as underestimated drivers of biodiversity loss: scientific and societal implications." Environmental Science & Technology 56, no. 2 (2022): 707-710.

Brühl, Carsten A., and Johann G. Zaller. "Biodiversity decline as a consequence of an inappropriate environmental risk assessment of pesticides." Frontiers in Environmental Science (2019): 177.

Topping, Christopher John, Annette Aldrich, and Philippe Berny. "Overhaul environmental risk assessment for pesticides." Science 367, no. 6476 (2020): 360-363.