'Zero pesticide' law in France 2020

The Minister of Ecology and Energy, Ségolène Royal, has called on mayors to stop using pesticides in their communes in the name of public health and biodiversity. ''Pesticides are a health risk and today there are products that enable us to stop using pesticides and win back biodiversity, namely species such as butterflies that have at times completely vanished from certain communes.''

A law was voted in for January 2020 which will ban pesticides from green spaces and flower beds. Road maintenance, sports fields and cemeteries are not affected by this law.

450 towns and communes have already joined a 'zero pesticide' movement, including Lyon, Grenoble, Dijon and many rural communes.

Communes that go for 'zero pesticides' before 2020 will receive a 50% financial aid from water agency Rhône Méditerranée Corse to help them weed, train personnel, invest in mechanical or thermal weeding material, and communication.

The water agency expects to see an important progress in water quality as a result. 40% of herbicides used in towns on impermeable surfaces end up directly in water courses or in underground water.