The total of non-managed bee types in the European continent experiencing dying out has more than doubled in the last ten years, and the total of at-risk butterfly has nearly doubled.
This pressing issue for crucial pollinators was disclosed by scientific assessments for the IUCN red list, which found that at least one hundred seventy-two bee types out of 1,928 were facing extinction in European nations.
The count of butterfly types facing extinction in Europe has grown from thirty-seven to sixty-five since the previous assessment, conducted 14 years ago. A single species, the Madeiran large white (Pieris wollastoni) has now been declared extinct.
Apart from their beauty and cultural value, pollinating species like bees and butterflies are lifelines for our well-being, our food chains and our economic systems – maintaining the produce, vegetables and seeds that feed us,” stated the IUCN director general. “The most recent European red list assessments reveal serious challenges, with dangers growing for butterfly species and vital native bee varieties.”
The causes of the swift recent drops are the continuing damage or destruction of habitats caused by intensive agriculture and abandoned land, draining wetlands, overgrazing by livestock, and the use of pesticides and fertilisers including neonicotinoid chemicals. The fragmentation of pollinator-friendly habitat greatly increases the danger of extinctions at local level.
Global warming is also shown to be a significant danger: Over half of all at-risk butterfly species in European nations are endangered by the climate change crisis – approximately twice as many as a ten years ago.
Nearly nine out of ten of plants that flower in European nations depend on pollination by animals, as per the wild bee assessment’s lead coordinator. “Unfortunately, native bee populations are in severe drop and cannot be easily replaced by managed colonies,” he said. “If wild bees vanish, many native plants might be in danger as well – of which flower-rich meadows and attractive orchid varieties are just a few examples.”
Fifteen species of bumblebee types, which play a crucial role in aiding the pollination of legumes like peas, beans, peanuts and clover, and 14 species of cellophane bees, known for aiding tree pollination such as willow trees and red maples, are now listed as threatened. Simpanurgus phyllopodus, a mining bee type unique to the European continent and the sole species of this genus in European nations, is now evaluated as critically at risk – the research category nearest to disappearance in the wild.
Butterfly species that are exclusively located on mountain tops are especially at risk to global heating as they have to climb upward as their environments become warmer but eventually have no room left. In southern Spain, the grayling of Nevada and the anomalous blue of Andalusia are among above 40 percent of types unique to Europe (only found in Europe) threatened with extinction.
In the Mediterranean area, types such as the highly at-risk Karpathos grayling butterfly are threatened by extreme dry conditions and fires.
In the meantime, in the Far North, global heating is resulting in the timberline to move north by dozens of meters each year, with scrub encroaching on wetlands and tundra. Hotter climates also mean Arctic deer can not anymore cross the ice sheets to graze Arctic grasslands and keep them open. Eight butterfly species are threatened with extinction in this zone, including Freyja’s fritillary butterfly and the ringlet of the Arctic.
“The biggest living space for all these pollinating species is bloom-filled grassy areas and that is disappearing very fast throughout European nations because of all these reasons,” stated one of the lead coordinators of the butterflies assessment. “The encouraging aspect is that so many citizens are concerned now and there’s a lot more consciousness. Under the European Union nature restoration law, all participating nations have to halt the drop in pollinators by twenty-thirty, and they are going to have to initiate measures. There are landowners who are engaged. We hope they can receive the motivations that will assist them on their way.”
As per the coordinator, there is “easy opportunities” in terms of measures for pollinating insects which will not lower agricultural output – and might boost it – such as growers developing flower-rich margins around their cultivated areas.
the EU’s environment commissioner, characterized the conservation status of wild bees, butterflies and other pollinators as “dire”.
“Immediate and joint measures is needed to address this danger. Along with member states, the Commission of the European Union has implemented an EU-wide observation system for pollinating insects based on the EU nature restoration regulation, which will assist in monitoring our advancement. Now, we need to focus on implementation and cooperation with member countries to preserve our pollinators,” she said.
The issuance of the bee and butterfly assessments follows the first EU-wide study on hoverflies, an additional crucial pollinator group. Published in 2022, it revealed that 37% of all hoverfly types in Europe were facing extinction.
