Foreword

Introduction to the BEESPOKE project

by John Holland, BEESPOKE project coordinator Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust, UK

Across the world insects are the most important pollinators of flowering plants including many crops, such as apples and strawberries, but also wild plants. They therefore play a crucial role within natural and agricultural ecosystems ensuring plants can produce the seeds and fruit upon which so many species depend, including ourselves, and ensuring their survival from year to year. For some crops this role is performed by managed honeybees, yet there are many more types of wild pollinating insects which are even more important, including bumblebees, solitary bees and hoverflies. Unfortunately, there is now alarming evidence that numbers of wild pollinators are in decline and the range of many species is contracting, putting crops, wild plants and ecosystems at risk.

The North Sea Region (NSR) is no exception and was identified as having a very low pollination potential leading to a pollination ‘gap’ or deficit that has implications for farm incomes and food security. In the EU, insect pollination is valued at 15 billion EUR and consequently there are considerable economic gains to be made from ensuring wild pollinators are preserved and enhanced to ensure optimum pollination.

In the NSR wild pollinators are particularly important being more coldtolerant and efficient pollinators than honeybees, but alarmingly there is evidence that they are declining. Indeed, almost 1 in 10 species of bees are considered threatened and a further 5% near threatened. In terms of their long-term population trends, 150 species are declining

(7.7%) and 244 species are stable (12.6%), however, for 1535 species in the EU (79%) there is no long-term data. More widespread and detailed monitoring is needed to keep track of their trends. With fewer species in northern than southern Europe, there is less robustness in the pollinator community to such losses, further emphasising the importance of protecting the remaining species and populations. There are many potential causes for the declines in pollinators including climate change, pesticides, urbanisation and loss of flowerrich habitats, but no clear scientific evidence regarding the importance of each of these.

One of the most important landscape changes has been the loss of flower-rich grassland as farmers have switched from hay to silage for livestock. Putting small amounts of such habitat back in the landscape has proven to help boost numbers of pollinators.

In the UK, providing just 2.2% flower-rich habitats doubled the numbers of nests of four bumblebee species in agricultural areas. Indeed, provision of more flower-rich habitat has been seen as a way to help pollinators throughout European agri-environment schemes of recent decades. Uptake of such schemes has, however, been low with pollinator conservation seen as the motivation rather than enhancement of crop productivity.

In the NSR, many of the economically important crops rely on insects for pollination; some are highly dependent (apples, cherries, soft fruits, blackcurrants, pumpkins, courgettes, spinach) or are moderately dependent (pears, plums, runner beans). For these and other crops we don’t always know which are the best pollinators and how much they contribute to improving yield or quality.

Despite its importance, the value of pollination is rarely quantified or considered, although in Belgium the annual total value of insect pollination was estimated at 252 million Euros in 2010. The EU Biodiversity strategy (Action 5) required EU Member States to map and assess the state of ecosystems and their services in their national territory by 2014, assess the economic value of such services, and promote the integration of these values into accounting and reporting systems at EU and national level by 2020. There is still much to do in terms of quantifying the value of pollination and also the cost of increasing this ecosystem service.

There is evidence that pollination is below the optimum due to insufficient numbers of honeybees and wild pollinators. In the UK <25% of the demand for pollination is provided by honeybees, and in Germany and Denmark is also low at 25-50%. In addition, crops vary in the types of pollinators which are most efficient, for some crops it is bumblebees whilst for others it may be solitary bees. There are also differences in which plant species individual species and groups of pollinators prefer to forage upon, depending on their anatomy. For example, long-tongued bumblebees can reach the nectar of flowers with long corollas whilst solitary bees, having short tongues, need more simple, open structured flowers. Across all countries, farmers are typically unaware of their pollination levels or how to encourage the right types of pollinators for their crops.

Having techniques to measure pollination levels and supply appropriate floral resources, products and services will generate meaningful economic gains across the region. This will encourage and support more sustainable agroecosystems and embed consideration of pollinators into farm management practices.

Other habitats in the landscape (low-input grassland, hedgerows and woodland) also contain flowering plants that are beneficial to pollinators and insect diversity and offer opportunities through appropriate management to increase floral resources at landscape scales.

Progress in providing pollinator resources via agri-environment schemes varies between NSR countries. Also, the aim of these schemes is to typically boost overall numbers of pollinators and insects using standardised wildflower seed mixes. These may not contain the types of plant species needed to support the required pollinators of a particular crop. Consequently, more targeted seed mixes may be needed. Standardised monitoring of pollinators and insect diversity is also in its infancy and is only national. Knowledge of long-term trends in abundance and distribution are a valuable tool for detecting where remedial measures are needed and are a powerful motivator and reward instrument.