This week European Commission announced the new EU Pollinator Initiative, the updated and strengthened version of Communication first published in 2018.
The new Initiative identifies actions organized under three overarching priorities: 1. improving knowledge of pollinator decline, its causes, and consequences; 2. improving pollinator conservation and tackling the causes of their decline: and 3. mobilizing society and promoting cooperation and strategic planning.
Activities include finalizing action plans for threatened pollinator species, identification of pollinators typical of habitats protected under the Habitats Directive, mapping of Key Pollinator Areas, devising a blueprint for a network of ecological corridors for pollinators (so-called Buzz Lines), and much more – the total of 42 pollinator actions.
The revised Initiative also addresses climate change as one of the drivers of pollinator decline and sets out to identify the most climate-vulnerable zones for pollinators and devise and implement climate adaptation measures.
The initiative will also – together with other new EU legislation, such as the proposal for Regulation on nature restoration – address causes of extinction (such as chemical pesticides and habitat loss) and establish EU pollinator monitoring. The monitoring program will entail the annual collection of standard data on wild pollinators across the entire European Union, allowing us to measure the success of this initiative, and of our efforts to restore and protect wild pollinators.
Illustration: EU Pollinator Information Hive
