Alessandro Romoli, Vice-President of the Province of Viterbo, urges haste: “We will try to finalise this issue by mid-September”. The “issue” is the updating of the “Provincial guidelines for the sustainable use of pesticides in agriculture, for municipal and inter-municipal regulations” (the current version dates back to 2015). These guidelines could be an important reference point for municipalities and farmers to regulate the sustainable use of pesticides and to support municipal ordinances, such as the recent Nepi decree, currently the subject of an appeal to the Regional Administrative Court (TAR Lazio), filed by Assofrutti.
A recent post from the Environmental Observatory of Lake Bolsena discusses the problem in detail and presents a comprehensive picture of the legislation and its state of application.
The Observatory notes that the 2015 provincial guidelines are incomplete as they completely ignore the existing environmental protection regulations concerning the protection of surface and groundwater, protected areas for habitats and birds, and nature reserves. In summary, the Observatory notes: “We are facing, in the Province of Viterbo, in the Region of Lazio and in Italy, a general framework of non-compliance and non-observance of the law. A picture that all institutions, up to the highest level, cannot be unaware of”.
In response to this situation (which we also talked about it in Pesticides, made to measure for hazelnuts?), the environmental associations of the lake and the committee for the nascent biodistrict have submitted their update proposals to the provincial commission.
We will see. At least one of the most important demands of the associations was not taken into account, namely that the guidelines should only be laid down after the adoption of the new national action plan for the sustainable use of plant protection products (PAN), which is scheduled for the end of the year. What is the point of rushing to adjust the provincial guidelines when you already know that they will have to be adjusted again in a few months?
