01/06/2009: Sweet news for insect pollinators

Pollinating insects face a potentially brighter future with the launch by Natural England of a UK reintroduction programme for a vanished bumblebee, and the announcement from other Living With Environmental Change partners of an event inviting research proposals for their new Insect Pollinator Initiative.

The Short-haired Bumblebee Bombus subterraneus became extinct in England in 2000, but for over a century a small remnant of the original English population has clung on in New Zealand, having been introduced there in the late nineteenth to pollinate clover crops. The bees were shipped aboard the first refrigerated lamb boats and established small populations in the South Island, where they remain unprotected and under threat.

The project hinges on the creation of healthy bumblebee habitat with the help of farmers in South East England, many of whom are already taking part in schemes to support the pollinating powers of bees.

Short-haired Bumblebee: Dave Goulson

Globally there is evidence that insect pollinators are currently declining in number, and are under serious threat from rapid changes in the environment, for example, from emerging diseases, habitat loss, intensive agriculture and climate change. In Europe both managed and wild insects contribute significantly to the pollination of a large variety of crops and wild plants. However, we need an evidence base to help conserve and manage these pollinators, improve husbandry of managed species and insure against the potential catastrophic loss of the ecosystem services insect pollinators provide.

BBSRC, Defra, NERC, the Scottish Government and the Wellcome Trust have come together under the Living With Environmental Change umbrella to fund research into a better understanding of the threats to insect pollinators, and to develop appropriate mitigation strategies. They have committed up to £10M over five years to support multidisciplinary research in this area, launching the 'Insect Pollinator Initiative' in April of this year.

An event calling for new proposals for the initiative will be held in London on 3 July. Details of the nature and scope of proposals will be given at the meeting, but systems-based approaches will be important, along with state-of-the-art technologies and methods.

• For further details of the Insect Pollinator Initiative meeting click here.
  
• To read more about the Short-haired Bumblebee reintroduction click here.