Common Blue Butterfly CREDIT Steve Bloomfield
Wild Pollinators Project
In December 2020 we entered the sixth year of the Wild Pollinator Project, funded from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) through Natural England’s Countryside Stewardship Scheme’s Facilitation Fund. We are engaging with farmers and growers to develop habitats and nesting sites for native pollinators and beneficial insects.
What is the Worcestershire Wild Pollinator Facilitation Fund? Watch our short video to find out more...
During the first five years of the project 40 farmers/land-managers joined the project, providing a strong cluster in the Forest of Feckenham as well as eight participants in the Shrawley area . Using our Wild Pollinator Health Check, we have audited almost all holdings and provided land managers with action plans that suggest management changes to complement both the holding and the insects . Lessons learnt and good ideas are shared with the whole group through study days, site visits and training events. Whilst Covid-19 affects visiting we are keeping in touch through webinars and picking up the phone.
Our Wild Pollinator Health check is currently being updated but meanwhile you can learn more about how we have been assessing landholdings for pollinators by downloading a copy below.
Outcomes
2019's ‘Insect declines and why they matter’ report examined mounting evidence that insect populations are close to collapse and concluded that “the consequences are clear; if insect declines are not halted, terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems will collapse, with profound consequences for human wellbeing.”
In our Facilitation Fund, land managers work together to maintain, establish and enhance existing populations of wild pollinators and other beneficial insects. For example, bumblebees and solitary bees (who can need quite specific habitat such as warm sunny area of bare earth), hoverflies (whose larvae are effective predators often of aphids) and butterflies etc.) by providing appropriate nesting habitat, food supplies and overwintering habitat.
More recently there is increasing emphasis on Integrated Pest Management (IPM) to alleviate the harm/stress that pesticides can cause pollinators, other invertebrates and the food chain in general, including the presence of certain pesticides in water that must then be cleaned to make it safe to drink.
Our overall aim is calling on the Government to set an ambitious pesticide reduction target that is as good as, if not better than, the EU’s proposed target to reduce by 50% the overall use of – and risk from – chemical pesticides by 2030.
Benefits
Farmers and growers, pollinators and beneficial insects are benefiting through a range of multi-functional solutions including:
- planting of pollen and nectar mixes to increase the amount and duration of food availability to wild pollinators whilst also buffering water courses
- connecting habitats to help pollinators move through the countryside
- reducing the need for growers to import pollinators
- increasing local knowledge and engaging growers in finding solutions and increasing the resilience (of both farmers and pollinators) in the area to climate change
- reducing use of insecticides and slug pellets
- sharing ideas regarding diversification and agro-ecological practices including agro-forestry, regenerative farming practices, growing heritage wheat. No rewilding yet!
- Lending a helping hand with Countryside Stewardship scheme applications
- Promoting to Government that the new Countryside Stewardship schemes must support farmers to adopt insect-friendly farming practices
The Big Four
Our Wild Pollinator Health Check helps to evaluate a holding for the availability of what we call ‘The Big Four’ - Food, Shelter, Connectivity and Avoidance of stress . Hear more from the Trust's Robin Bickley and meet Facilitation Fund member Jonathan Boaz on his 600 acre mixed arable farm and take as he shows some of the practical things he has done and how important it is to get the balance right in terms of feeding people and wildlife.
Integrated Pest Management
No farmer wants to use insecticide and here the Trust's Robin Bickley explores Integrated Pest Management (IPM) on a stone fruit farm.
The cherry grower stresses the importance of working with the environment, including the weather, and how this knowledge might help prepare for future situations. She expresses how important it is to apply solutions other than chemicals whilst the enterprise also has to make a living. Every effort is made to engage natures services, such as predatory insects to eat the fruit flies that could cause severe crop damage. Garlic also does a good job at deterring the threat and the enterprise is very focussed on sympathetic as well as profitable solutions. The Wildlife Trusts ambition is to reduce pesticide use by 50-% by 2030.
You can hear more from the farmers and growers that we work with in BBC Midlands Today interview from July 2016.
The European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development: Europe investing in rural areas.
This project has received European Union spending under the Countryside Stewardship Scheme's Facilitation Fund.
