Title: Alternatives to Herbicides A Guide for the Amenity Sector
With a climate change emergency, collapsing biodiversity and a global health crisis underway it is imperative that our urban spaces become healthier places for people and wildlife. The body of evidence linking pesticides to serious human health and environmental harms is growing, as is the movement to end their use.
The vast majority of pesticides used in the amenity sector are herbicides. The amenity sector includes towns and cities, sports grounds and transport infrastructure, such as roads and railway tracks. The vast majority of pesticides used in the amenity sector are herbicides, designed to kill unwanted vegetation of all types, not necessarily 'weeds". ==The majority of the pesticides used are based on the active substance called glyphosate, which accounts for approximately 77% of all herbicide use in the amenity sector.
This publication from the Pesticide Action Network (PAN) UK focusses specifically on alternatives to herbicide used to manage 'weeds' and other vegetation in amenity settings==The information provided in the publication will be relevant n9\ot only to councils, but to any land managers with responsibility for weed control. Areas such as golf courses, railways, motorways and universities, to name but a few, are all major users of synthetic herbicides and, in response to growing public demand, they will be seeking alternative controls in order to reduce or end their herbicide use.
In the UK, more than 65 councils, ranging from parish to district and county level, are already taking action to stop or significantly reduce their use of herbicides. In Australia there are only one or perhaps two at this stage. The guide is also relevant to land managers with responsibility for vegetation management in areas such as golf courses, railways, motorways, hospitals, housing and universities, to name a few. All of them are users of herbicides and we hope that this guide will be of benefit to them too.
