Conservationists warn bees and butterflies are at risk of disappearing for good
Europe’s wild bees and butterflies face a growing extinction crisis, a new conservation assessment has warned, prompting calls for urgent action to reverse the “dire” situation for these vital pollinators.
Their decline poses a significant threat to natural systems and food production.
The latest assessments at European level for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List now classify around 100 more wild bee species as at risk.
This brings the total number of 1,928 bees assessed to 172; This means that one in ten wild bees in Europe is threatened; This is a sharp increase from 77 species in 2014.
According to the IUCN report, more than 20 percent of both bumblebee and cellophane bee species are threatened.
This includes 15 species of bumblebees, which are vital for pollinating plants such as peas, beans and clover, and 14 species of cellophane bees, which are vital for plants in the daisy family and trees currently listed as threatened, such as red maples.
These important insects are succumbing to pressures from agriculture, pollution and rising temperatures and require urgent intervention.
The situation is also very serious for butterflies in Europe; Of the 442 species assessed, 65, or approximately 15 percent, are in danger of extinction. This number was 37 species in 2010.
More than 40 percent of butterflies found in Europe alone are now endangered or endangered.
The Madeira great white species, found only on the Portuguese island of Madeira, is now officially classified as extinct, the IUCN said.
Conservationists said the biggest threat to wild pollinators is habitat loss; for more intensive agriculture and forestry, combined with the abandonment of land in less productive areas, meant that they lost their traditional rural landscape homes, such as flower-filled meadows.
The widespread use of pesticides, including nitrogenous fertilizers and herbicides that reduce the diversity of flowering plants, also harms many pollinators.
Climate change brings with it long periods of hot weather, droughts and uncontrollable fires; This is increasingly damaging butterfly habitats in southern Europe and threatening marsh and tundra habitats in the Alps and further north.
The IUCN warns that more than half (52 per cent) of threatened butterfly species in Europe are affected by climate change, and some, such as the critically endangered Nevada grays in south-eastern Spain, are suffering from a combination of habitat loss and global warming.
However, the effects of higher temperatures on bees are more complex, affecting bumblebees that are adapted to the cold, while carpenter bees benefit from warmer conditions that accelerate their development and reproduction.
Dr D., former president of Butterfly Conservation and one of the lead coordinators of the European Butterflies assessment. Martin Warren said: “Many European butterflies are threatened by habitat changes resulting from rising temperatures.
“But they have a chance by ensuring their habitat is managed as well as possible and their populations are large and robust.
“Others could be saved from extinction by preventing wildfires that could destroy their habitat for years.”
IUCN director general Dr. Grethel Aguilar said: “Beyond their beauty and cultural significance, pollinators such as bees and butterflies are the lifeblood of our health, food systems and economies, ensuring the supply of fruits, vegetables and seeds that nourish us.
“In fact, four out of five crop and wildflower species in the EU rely on insect pollination.
“The latest European Red List assessments reveal serious challenges, with increasing threats to butterflies and important wild bee species.”
But he added that it also provides the data needed to direct urgent conservation actions to reverse the declining population.
For the first time since the early 2010s, European-level assessments of several species groups have been funded by the European Commission
Jessika Roswall, the commission’s environment commissioner, said: “The new assessment shows that the conservation state of European wild bees, butterflies and other pollinators is very poor.
“They are the foundation of our food systems, ecosystems and societies. Urgent and collective action is needed to combat this threat,” he insisted.
