The Action Network on Pesticides and their Alternatives in Latin America (RAP-AL), founded in June 1983, is a network of organizations, institutions, associations and individuals who oppose the massive and indiscriminate use of pesticides, putting forward proposals to reduce and eliminate its use.
RAP-AL promotes viable alternatives for the development of socially fair, ecologically sustainable and economically viable agriculture, which allows people to achieve food sovereignty. It also objects to transgenic crops because they threaten health and biological diversity.
RAP-AL together with its members carry out actions that:
• raise awareness about the dangers of the use of PESTICIDES at rural and urban levels;
• raise awareness among civil society about the impacts of conventional agriculture on ecosystems and the population.;
• promote political and legal actions for the eradication of pesticides and the implementation of alternatives;
• inform the public about the dangers of pesticides on health and the environment;
• promote research and dissemination of viable ecological alternatives to pesticides;
• rescue, revalue and systematize peasant knowledge in the management of agricultural production systems;
• promote citizen participation and environmental education, with emphasis on the problem of pesticides and their alternatives; and
• promote studies on the impacts of pesticides on health and the environment.
RAP-Al hopes to ontribute to improving the quality of life through:
• the reduction and elimination in the production, marketing and use of pesticides that threaten life, health and the environment;
• a change of attitude towards a sustainable model of agricultural production;
• contribution to the improvement of environmental quality and the health of the Latin American population; and
• the development of agricultural production systems that do not harm the environment and are sustainable.
RAP-AL is the regional center for Latin America and the Caribbean of Pesticide Action Network (PAN), an organization established in 1982, with regional offices in Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and Latin America.
