Today Earthjustice, on behalf of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to swiftly correct flaws in its framework for assessing pesticide risks to pollinators. Currently, the EPA only requires pesticide manufacturers to submit limited data concerning pesticide impacts on adult honey bees. The result is that the EPA vastly underestimates the toll of pesticides on critical pollinator populations.

The petition follows last week’s proposed Endangered Species Act listing for the monarch butterfly, a species whose decline has been linked to pesticides in the American Midwest. Many countries face losses of over 40% of their bee and butterfly species in the coming decades, a trend that has corresponded with a massive uptick in the use of increasingly insect-toxic pesticides. Nearly a third of North American bumble bee species are at risk of extinction and several other species have shown evidence of decline.

“The monarch butterfly was just proposed for listing under the Endangered Species Act. We know pesticides are a key driver of monarch and other pollinator declines. Yet there are glaring gaps in the EPA’s oversight of pesticides: the vast majority of pesticides have never been tested for their impacts on butterflies or wild bees,” said Rosemary Malfi, director of conservation policy at the Xerces Society. “How can we protect these essential species if we’re missing the basic information needed to make better decisions?”

Under federal law, the EPA is charged with ensuring that pesticides don’t have unreasonable adverse impacts on the environment before they become commercially available. Yet the EPA’s narrow and inadequate risk assessment framework means the agency only requires limited evaluation of pesticide risks to adult foraging honey bees, leaving key pollinators such as wild bees, moths, and butterflies vulnerable to harm. These insects play a significant role in supporting biodiversity and crop production — yet all are facing steep population declines.

Even regarding pesticide risks to honey bees, the EPA has never codified the bulk of pesticide testing procedures it requests of pesticide manufacturers. This means that there are delays, data gaps, and a lack of transparency in the current pollinator risk assessment.

The petition submitted today calls on the EPA to mandate pesticide testing for bumble bees, solitary bees, butterflies, and moths. It also calls on the EPA to codify existing tests of pesticide impacts on honey bees.

Some of the world’s most ecologically harmful pesticides are due for registration renewal, including neonicotinoids — a class of pesticides that is especially toxic to pollinators. The petition seeks to ensure the EPA has complete and accurate data on pollinator impacts before the agency makes these renewal decisions.

“The massive pollinator declines we have seen in recent years show that the EPA’s system for assessing pesticide risks to our environment isn’t working,” said Sharmeen Morrison, attorney with Earthjustice’s Biodiversity Defense Program. “It’s time for the EPA to bring its pesticide testing requirements into alignment with the current science. The proposed Endangered Species Act listing for the monarch should be a wake up call to federal agencies to take action before it’s too late.”