21/04/2009: New initiative to tackle bee and pollinator decline

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn today launched a £10 million Living With Environmental Change initiative to help identify the main threats to bees and other insect pollinators.

He said: “Aristotle identified bees as the most hard working of insects, and with one in three mouthfuls coming from insect-pollinated crops, we need to support bees and other pollinators.”

Photo by: Autan


Pollinators including honey and bumble bees, as well as butterflies and moths, play an essential role in pollinating many vital food crops.

However, these insects are susceptible to a variety of disease and environmental threats, some of which have increased significantly over the last five to ten years. Climate change – in particular warmer winters and wetter summers – has had a major impact on pollinators. As a result, the numbers of pollinators have been declining steadily in recent years, with the number of bees in the UK alone falling by between 10 and 15 per cent over the last two years.

To gain a better understanding of why this is happening, some of the UK’s major research funders have joined together under the Living With Environmental Change (LWEC) partnership to launch an important new research programme. The biggest challenge will be to develop a better understanding of the complex relationships between biological and environmental factors which affect the health and lifespan of pollinators.

Professor Alan Thorpe, Chief Executive of NERC, commented: "Through the Pollinator Initiative, the Living With Environmental Change partners will address what is a complex multidisciplinary problem. We need to conduct research that will help us to understand the links between bees and other pollinators and the range of environmental factors that affect them in various ways. This research will provide vital insights into why there has been a steep decline in these insect populations in recent years and help us to find solutions to the problem."