Protecting Farmland Pollinators

The Protecting Farmland Pollinators is a European Innovation Partnership (EIP) project coordinated by the National Biodiversity Data Centre, and an initiative of the all-Ireland pollinator plan.

Forty participating farmers are encouraged to provide small wildlife habitats for pollinators on their land. The overarching aim of the project is to enable farms across Ireland to be more pollinator and biodiversity friendly.

Decline in wildflowers is an issue for our pollinators and our tendency to ‘tidy up’ the landscape reduces resources for bees. Allied to this providing south-facing, bare land is vital for the mining bees- that make up 60pc of Irish bees - to dig their nests.

Biodiversity and farmland management are closely linked. To support pollinators and biodiversity-friendly landscapes, implementation of the following  steps is encouraged.

1. Retain existing biodiversity-friendly areas.
2. Maintain existing areas through positive biodiversity-friendly management.
3. Restore areas that once provided support for biodiversity.
4. Create new biodiversity-friendly areas to enhance its biodiversity value.

Image Source: Protecting Farmland Pollinators

Some key actions for farmers are:

• Maintaining native flowering hedgerows.
• Allowing native wildflowers to grow around the farm.
• Promoting nesting places for the wild bees.
• Reducing pesticide use.

‘‘What’s really useful about this project is we’ve got a huge range of farms involved. We’ve got different farm types, beef, dairy, tillage and mixed, all with different farming intensities. Essentially, this scheme can be applied to farms throughout the country’’

-        Dr Saorla Kavanagh - Project manager

The Protecting Farmland Pollinators project is about identifying small actions that can be taken on farms to improve Biodiversity. Many of these actions are in line with the aim of the sustainability action payment. Improving Biodiversity through additional native trees, additional hedgerows, Multi Species swards (MSS) incorporation and the use of riparian margins will benefit pollinators.

The National Biodiversity Data Centre is hosting the Festival of Farmland Biodiversity for May 2022. If all farmers took small actions to help combat biodiversity loss, the cumulative impact could address the issue. By maintaining diversity in the Irish landscape, the farming community are helping to build resilience against the challenges of climate change.

First Published: 17 May 2022