Here’s a quick overview of the proposed strategy and guidance on how farmers and growers can respond via the simple online survey.
The consultation closes on Friday 2 May.
Aim and vision
The strategy aims to safeguard pollinating insects, given their important role in contributing to food production and the diversity of our environment through the pollination of many crop and wild plants.
We have around 1,500 species of insect pollinator in England. A few are managed, like honeybees and some bumblebees, but most are wild, including bumblebees, solitary bees, hoverflies, flies, beetles, butterflies and moths. The pollination job these insects do for crops alone in the UK is valued at over £430 million.
Government’s vision is ‘to see pollinators thrive, providing essential pollination services and benefits for food production, the wider environment and everyone’.
What do we know?
We know pollinators face a range of pressures and some species are threatened. These pressures include intensification of land-use and habitat loss (both leading to loss of food resources and shelter), pests and diseases, invasive species, use of pesticides and climate change. There are growing concerns that these pressures have led to declines in the number, diversity and distribution of pollinator species.
Our understanding of the status of pollinators in England and the problems they face is detailed in Annex 1 of the consultation, and in an independent status report that accompanies the consultation.
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When looking at the available evidence it is clear that there is uncertainty over the status of pollinators (whether species are in decline or not), uncertainty over the causes of any changes in pollinator status, and uncertainty over the implications of any changes in pollinator status (e.g. are declines actually resulting in a lack of pollination). All the uncertainty makes it difficult to develop actions, so the proposed strategy responds by focussing on three main elements:
1. Gathering evidence on pollinator status and impacts of pressures to provide a sound base for future policies to support pollinators. The NFU believes the proposed actions for further research and monitoring tackle the gaps in our knowledge in a sensible and balanced way.
2. Policy actions in areas where we do have good existing evidence.
3. A commitment to review and refresh the strategy’s aims and actions as new evidence becomes available.
Call to action
To get everyone to join-in in taking action to help pollinators, there will be a ‘Call to Action’ focussing on how to provide the essential needs for pollinators – access to food (pollen and nectar), and places to shelter, nest and overwinter.
Priority actions
Government says in the consultation that ‘the promotion of pollinator-friendly management of farmland is key to extending flower-rich habitats for pollinators’. So there are 6 proposed policy actions (numbers 2-7) specifically focussed on the management of farmland:
- Ensure pollinators are a key focus of CAP reform under Pillars I and II, and in the development of targeted voluntary actions (e.g. Campaign for the Farmed Environment)
- Secure commitment of farm advice providers to draw on the ‘Call to Action’ package for pollinators
- Develop and implement on-farm pollinator events, led by CFE and supported by the new CFE leaflet ‘Pollinator management for your farm business
- Review and update Integrated Pest Management (IPM) guidance and information, and distribute it to farmers (led by HSE working with others)
- The Voluntary Initiative (VI) to revise and re-publish guidance on insecticide best practice, and make sure annual spray operators training includes ‘more detailed coverage on the responsible use of insecticides’
- Facilitate increased sharing of IPM practices between farmers and growers, including on-farm demonstrations, walks and workshops (led by Defra working with CFE and others)
The challenge for farmers and growers
The strategy proposes that farmers and growers help support pollinators in two main ways 1) the uptake of IPM, and 2) by providing measures that offer food and shelter resources for pollinators.
The industry has already made some significant progress on IPM. The new VI IPM plan has been developed to demonstrate how UK farmers and growers are using IPM practices. The strategy proposals will build on this achievement to further progress promotion, use and development of IPM.
The second aim – to manage farmland to provide food and shelter resources for pollinators – can generally be achieved in three different ways
- via mandatory greening measures (CAP Pillar I)
- via voluntary measures (e.g. under CFE), or
- via incentivised agri-environment scheme (CAP Pillar II).
The challenge for farming is that we currently do not know what the Ecological Focus Areas (EFAs) under greening will be or how they will work, and we don’t know what the offer for pollinators will be in the New Environmental Land Management Schemes (NELMS) from 2016. The concern is this puts a lot of pressure on the squeezed-middle – the voluntary measures delivered by farming.
The NFU would like to see a wide range of EFA measures that will encourage and help farmers deliver resources for pollinators. It would be a missed opportunity if EFA’s enhanced to help pollinators did not receive appropriate weighting to reflect their additional environmental value.
Respond to the consultation
Overall, considering the many uncertainties involved, the NFU believes the proposed National Pollinator Strategy is a balanced, pragmatic, evidence-based and yet still challenging approach to supporting pollinators.
We urge farmers and growers to take a few minutes before 2 May to respond to the consultation, by completing the simple online response form. It basically asks you the following seven questions about the proposed National Pollinator Strategy
- Do you have any comments on the vision and aims for pollinators?
-Have Defra given a fair summary of main areas of concern for pollinators and the available evidence?
-Do you have any suggestions on the best way to communicate the ‘Call to Action’ to many different audiences?
-Do you agree with the priority actions?
-Can you provide any examples of good practices which are already helping pollinators? particularly any management of farmland, integrated pest management or knowledge sharing networks not already mentioned in the consultation
-Have we identified the right priority areas for further research and monitoring?
- How could you contribute further to priority actions?