The Green Party has launched a petition calling for an official Healthy Bee Strategy to be implemented in New Zealand which would include banning the controversial pesticide –neonicotinoids.

The pesticide which is used to coat the seeds of plants such as grass, rye, maize, brassica and squash has been linked by some to the not yet fully understood international phenomenon Colony Collapse Disorder – whereby entire colonies of bees simply disappear.

Colony Collapse Disorder has led to the disappearance of billions of bees in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa over the last 7 years but is not thought to be in New Zealand yet.

Green MP Sue Kedgley says the government needs to act now to protect bees which pollinate the country’s crops and pastures.

“What we want to see are annual surveys so we can pick up whether there has been a decline in bee populations.

“Many countries overseas do these official surveys and we think they need to be done on an annual basis, because our bees are already incredibly vulnerable.”

The pesticide is banned in Germany, France and Italy.

Ms Kedgley says bees are essential to New Zealand agriculture and farmers need to wake up to the consequences of using neonicotinoids.

“I have been contacted by farmers who say what they are concerned about is that many farmers are oblivious to the fact that they are using seeds.

“You know grass seed, rye seed, etc which have been coated with these insecticides that have been coated with these insecticides that are very toxic to the bees.

“So farmers aren’t aware of this, seed companies aren’t necessarily telling farmers their seeds have been coated in these insecticides.”