Wales Action Plan for Pollinators

Introduction

Pollinators are an essential component of the Welsh environment. Honeybees and wild pollinators including bumblebees, solitary bees, parasitic wasps, hoverflies, butterflies and moths and some beetles are important pollinators across a wide range of crops and wild flowers and help improve the productivity of pasture systems for livestock grazing.The value of pollination as a contribution to the UK crop market in 2007 was £430 million and the annual cost of hand pollination, were we to lose this valuable service, has been estimated at £1.8 billion in the UK. The value of honey produced in Wales is also considerable with a wholesale value in excess of £2 million in 2011. Declining bee and pollinator health populations have been increasingly highlighted as a cause for concern in the UK. Research indicates that honeybees showed a 23% decline in Wales between 1985 and 2005. Butterflies, hoverflies and many species of moth are also declining across Wales. Wild flower meadows and other semi-natural habitats that support pollinators have also decreased in area.

Other Pollinator Work

Monitoring

Defra has published a research report, to derive a National Pollinator and Pollination Monitoring Framework (NPPMF) to guide future implementation by a range of partners, building on existing citizen science activity.

The report sets out a range of scenarios for strengthening monitoring, including sample size requirements and field methods tested for ease, repeatability and acceptability to volunteers

COBWEB Project: A project to recruit citizen scientists from the 3000+ inhabitants of the Penparcau ward (Aberystwyth) to record observations of butterflies and their food resources (larval and adult) using innovative mobile phone and web technologies is due to start in the spring of 2015. Building upon earlier test developments within COBWEB this sub- project was co-designed with Penparcau Community Forum to help record the butterfly species in the area to inform local management plans and increase interest and understanding of the importance of butterflies (and other pollinators) to the health of Wales' natural environment. Data collected in the course of this sub-project will be shared with biological record organisations (National Biodiversity Network, Local Records Centres) to support dissemination and use for a variety of purposes from planning to environmental research and decision making. Data collected will be utilised by Welsh Government to assess the suitability of modelled large scale pollinator resource maps to inform a range of policy questions.

Polli:Nation

The project supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund is helping schools across the UK to protect the future of our declining pollinator populations. For further information and to sign up visit the Polli:Nation website

Nature Fund Projects

Keep Wales Tidy - Natural Buzz Project

This project aims to maximise multiple ecosystem services of currently undervalued green sterile spaces – mowed areas on industrial estates, school and hospital grounds, business parks and roadside verges and transform them into a blaze of wild flowers.

Torfaen County Borough Council - Pollinators for Life Project

This ambitious and innovative project aims to undertake a range of initiatives to promote long term sustainable land management and to improve habitats and conditions for all pollinating species across the South Wales Valleys.

More information on the Nature Fund Projects and contact details can be found here