A new review of insect pollinators concludes that they are threatened globally by multiple pressures, and their decline or loss could have profound environmental, human health and economic consequences.

Globally, insects pollinate about three quarters of crop species and enable reproduction in nearly all wild flowering plants. If pollination were a worldwide service industry it would be valued annually at over 200 million dollars.

The Chair of LWEC's Business Advisory Board, Colin Drummond, is featured in a short film by the Environmental Sustainability Knowledge Transfer Network. He explains from first hand experience how waste could be a significant contributor to energy security in the UK by 2015.

Having moved his company, Viridor, from disposing of waste in landfill to a successful business using waste to create energy, Colin Drummond, makes a persuasive case for green innovation.

Two new studies have shown that bees forget where to find food when exposed to pesticides commonly used in agriculture.

The researchers found that the pesticides, used at levels shown to occur in the wild, could interfere with the learning circuits in the bee’s brain.

They also found that bees exposed to combined pesticides were slower to learn or completely forgot important associations between floral scent and food rewards.

A project part-funded by the Insect Pollinators Initiative has shown that caffeine improves a honeybee’s memory. 

Publishing in Science, researchers show that honeybees feeding on a sugar solution containing caffeine were three times more likely to remember a flower’s scent than those feeding on just sugar.  This could be advantageous to coffee and citrus plants whose nectar contains caffeine because it helps the bees to remember where they are and spread their pollen.