University of Mons – Zoology Lab / Wild bees conservation
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Wild bees and other wild pollinators are currently experiencing a strong decline linked, directly (agriculture intensification) or undirectly (climate change) to human activities and global changes. These insects are very precious to maintain ecosystems through pollination service and are essential to our agriculture. Their disappearing (in diversity and abundance) is thus very worrying. We thus think that it is still possible to reverse the trend and limit the pollinators losses. To do so, we need to start acting now to protect bees and other pollinators.
To me, acting for pollinators can be done at several levels: at home, on the work place, during my work…
At individual scale I’m making my garden pollinator friendly and I do my best to raise awareness of people around me.
In the University, we built up a “Bee village”, worked for a greener campus and we currently do conferences or guided tours to raise awareness of students, teachers, researchers and academics on wild bees.
At a larger level, I coordinate a project named SAPOLL-Save our POLLinators (www.sapoll.eu). More precisely, this project will implement an action plan for wild pollinators conservation in Belgium and north of France. Our goal is to bring all stakeholders (citizens, farmers, teachers, politicians…) to play a part in wild pollinators preservation.
Even with projects like SAPOLL, the task is big and it is urgent to reduce the risks for pollinators and provide them food (floral resources) and nesting sites. To do so, we lack human and financial means to mobilize everyone on this critical cause. We also lack information and experience to better protect wild pollinators because this is very new.
To make a real difference we would need everyone, at every scale, to get involved in pollinators conservation. We need to adapt the legislations and political programs (bottom down), but we also need companies, administrations and citizens to integrate wild pollinators in their everyday life, actions and concerns (bottom up). More precisely, it is very important (i) to continue research and monitoring of wild pollinators and their decline causes; (ii) raise awareness and inform people in order to involve them in taking actions; (iii) start doing ambitious conservation actions for biodiversity and wild pollinators.
Originally posted 2018-05-21 21:08:44.