OECD countries have implemented high standards for the registration of pesticides to contribute to risk reduction and to reduce the risks for the environment and human health arising from pesticide use.  IPM is a crucial element for risk reduction. Regulatory aspects and registration policies beneficial to IPM are listed below by country.

 

Australia• Belgium • Canada • Denmark • Germany • Estonia • Ireland • Japan • Netherlands • New Zealand • Portugal • Slovenia • Spain • United Kingdom • United States

 

 

Belgium

Flemish Region: An important action point in the Flemish action plan for a sustainable use of pesticides is the promotion of IPM for all professional users of pesticides. The selectivity of the pesticides for beneficials is an important issue. On the federal level the selectivity is taken into account by the registration of the pesticide since the adoption of the EU Directive 91/414.

 

Canada

In Canada pest control products are regulated by the Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA).  Regulatory directives discussing reduced risk as it pertains to pesticide registrations and labeling are available on the PMRA website.  Reduced risk refers to a wide range of products, including conventional chemicals, non-conventional chemicals, microbial agents and products, and pheromones and other semiochemicals. In addition, reduced risk initiatives address resistance management, including labeling based on mode of action, so that users can incorporate resistance management decisions into their management practices.

In 2002 the PMRA published a regulatory directive on the Reduced Risk initiative for pesticides (DIR2002-02, The PMRA Initiative for Reduced-Risk Pesticides).  The program encourages pesticide manufacturers to apply for Canadian registration of reduced-risk products that are currently available in the United States (U.S.).  Canada uses the same criteria as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to determine eligibility of chemicals for the reduced-risk program and recognizes the U.S. EPA’s biopesticide designation. Through this program, the PMRA also commits to shorter review timelines for products that qualify as a reduced-risk chemical or biopesticide.

In addition, there are regulatory directives and proposals outlining registration requirements for non-conventional products, microbials and semiochemicals.Microbials (biopesticides) will be discussed in a separate document.  

• DIR2012-01, Guidelines for the Registration of Non-Conventional Pest Control Products
  
  
• PRO2002-02, Guidelines for the Research and Registration of Pest Control Products containing Pheromones and Other Semiochemicals

Finally, a proposal outlining the labeling of pesticides with respect to resistance management statements (PRO2012-02, Pesticide Resistance Management Labelling based on Target Site / Mode of Action) has been published. This is an update of guidelines published in 1999 and was developed in cooperation with the United States working cooperatively under the auspices of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). A uniform approach across North America may help delay the development of pesticide resistance and support joint registration decisions by providing consistency in the resistance-management labelling being considered for approval in any or all of the NAFTA countries.

 

Denmark

A feature of most pesticide action plans has been on one hand to tighten the national pesticide regulation procedure mainly to ensure the protection of groundwater (Denmark regulates pesticide metabolites differently than the rest of the EU) and on the other hand to streamline the regulation procedure to ensure that safe products are made available to farmers as quickly as possible. As part of the fourth pesticide action plan Green Growth from 2010 the government wished to encourage that a greater number of alternative low-risk plant protection products are applied for authorization. As a result applicants can obtain financial support to generate the required trials. The overall purpose is twofold: to improve the framework conditions for ecological growers but also to replace some of the plant protection products that are currently in use in conventional farming with other, less harmful, products.