title: Development of a framework based on an ecosystem services approach for deriving specific protection goals for environmental risk assessment of pesticides.
abstract: General protection goals for the environmental risk assessment (ERA) of plant protection products are stated in European legislation but specific protection goals (SPGs) are often not precisely defined. These are however crucial for designing appropriate risk assessment schemes. The process followed by the Panel on Plant Protection Products and their Residues (PPR) of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) as well as examples of resulting SPGs obtained so far for environmental risk assessment (ERA) of pesticides is presented. The ecosystem services approach was used as an overarching concept for the development of SPGs, which will likely facilitate communication with stakeholders in general and risk managers in particular. It is proposed to develop SPG options for 7 key drivers for ecosystem services (microbes, algae, non target plants (aquatic and terrestrial), aquatic invertebrates, terrestrial non target arthropods including honeybees, terrestrial non-arthropod invertebrates, and vertebrates), covering the ecosystem services that could potentially be affected by the use of pesticides. These SPGs need to be defined in 6 dimensions: biological entity, attribute, magnitude, temporal and geographical scale of the effect, and the degree of certainty that the specified level of effect will not be exceeded. In general, to ensure ecosystem services, taxa representative for the key drivers identified need to be protected at the population level. However, for some vertebrates and species that have a protection status in legislation, protection may be at the individual level. To protect the provisioning and supporting services provided by microbes it may be sufficient to protect them at the functional group level. To protect biodiversity impacts need to be assessed at least at the scale of the watershed/landscape.
authors: European Food Safety Authority, Largo N. Palli 5/A, 43121 Parma, Italy.
authors: Karin M
authors: KM
authors: Nienstedt
authors: Theo C M
authors: TC
authors: Brock
authors: Joke
authors: J
authors: van Wensem
authors: Mark
authors: M
authors: Montforts
authors: Andy
authors: A
authors: Hart
authors: Alf
authors: A
authors: Aagaard
authors: Anne
authors: A
authors: Alix
authors: Jos
authors: J
authors: Boesten
authors: Stephanie K
authors: SK
authors: Bopp
authors: Colin
authors: C
authors: Brown
authors: Ettore
authors: E
authors: Capri
authors: Valery
authors: V
authors: Forbes
authors: Herbert
authors: H
authors: Köpp
authors: Matthias
authors: M
authors: Liess
authors: Robert
authors: R
authors: Luttik
authors: Lorraine
authors: L
authors: Maltby
authors: José P
authors: JP
authors: Sousa
authors: Franz
authors: F
authors: Streissl
authors: Anthony R
authors: AR
authors: Hardy
mesh_terms: D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D017753:Ecosystem; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D010575:Pesticides / Q000032:analysis*; D018570:Risk Assessment
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D010575:Pesticides