FEGGA: Golf must proactively reduce pesticides
The message was clear: “FEGGA is in favor of significantly less dependence on PPPs. FEGGA is not against regulation, not against a drastic reduction – but against a complete ban.” This is how Joel Nunes, President FEGGA, the umbrella body of Europes greenkeepers associations, formulates the association’s current position on the use of pesticides.
FEGGA is concerned about the latter – much more than any normal golfer might think. After all, golfers themselves have little contact with the issue of pesticides on the golf course. However, the topic is important for those responsible in Europe’s greenkeeper associations because the future of chemical agents and therefore the future of pest, disease and weed control is uncertain.
Next EU draft law 2025?
The fact is: In the EU, it is still unclear to what extent golf courses will be able to use effective means to control weeds or pests in the future. After the EU Parliament was unable to agree on a resolution in November 2023, the original draft law was withdrawn on February 6, 2024. A new SUR draft is now expected in the first quarter of 2025, where SUR is the abbreviation for Sustainable Use Regulation.
How is the golf industry reacting to this period of uncertainty? Leaning back and carrying on as before is not a strategy, explains Martin Nilsson, who is responsible for the issue on behalf of the FEGGA at EU level. Instead, he believes it is essential that all golf courses work with their managers and greenkeepers to develop a medium-term strategy for the golf course now.
This approach was also supported by Niels Dokkuma, EGA’s sustainability consultant, at the FEGGA annual meeting in Madrid in March. The Dutchman, who has led negotiations with the EU on this topic for the EGA in recent years, sees no alternative to an “80 percent reduction in chemical pesticides by 2030 based on the average from 2015 to 2017 as a baseline.”
In his view, the golf industry needs faster innovation when it comes to low risk biological applications and other alternatives to chemical pesticides. According to Dokkuma, in order to be able to act faster, the golf industry must introduce data monitoring and reporting, establish definitions and guidelines for the so-called integrated pest management of the future, seek cooperation with other associations, expand its own knowledge and improve communication on the subject.
France works according to new standards
A look at France makes it clear that neither Dokkuma nor the FEGGA managers Nunes and Nilsson are unrealisitc, but rather try to raise awareness among golf clubs and federations of the need for a change in strategy. In France, the government has imposed a strict limit on the use of pesticides on the golf scene and introduced these together with new rules on water consumption and the protection of biodiversity on January 1, 2024. The pesticide regulation was only relaxed again in the wake of the farmers’ protests at the beginning of the year.
“It is better for us in negotiations with the government if we can say that we have already worked according to the new regulations,” explains Rémy Dorbeau, President of the French Greenkeepers’ Association. He is also Director of the renowned Chantilly golf course near Paris. In France, the focus is therefore on “maximum transparency”, which is why consumption data was collected from golf courses last year. Multi-year programs have been launched to develop new greenkeeping methods and research new resources. The reduction in pesticides had already reached an average of 70 percent by the end of 2023. According to Dorbeau, however, the effort involved, for example in the extremely precise application of agents to very small areas and the data collection, is undoubtedly enormous.
Golf must act proactively
It is currently unclear whether what is already commonplace in greenkeeping in France will affect all other golf associations in the EU in the future. However, one thing is certain for the FEGGA: in order to put the golf scene in a better starting position in the negotiations with the EU on the complete ban on the use of pesticides, the industry must make an advance effort and demonstrate that it is prepared to deviate from previous methods.
