Protecting the pollinators

The bees are disappearing. At least that’s what scientists and environment campaigners have been telling us for a long time now.The statistics back them up as well.

Last year the British Bee Keeping Association (BBKA) estimates England saw bee colony losses at 34 per cent over the course of the winter — the highest ever recorded and double the figure of the previous year.

Experts don’t seem entirely decided on what might be the actual cause of decline; whether it’s a larvae-eating parasite, fungal and bacterial diseases, neglect by keepers or now-illegal neonicotinoid insecticides.

What they are decided on though, is that action needs to be taken.

Pollinators, such as bees, play a vital role in the growth of crops such as oilseed rape and fruit such as strawberries and apples. Indeed it is estimated that natural pollinators are worth £500m each year to farming.

In the last week, the Government has published its new ‘pollinator strategy’, with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pledging to increase public awareness and create flower-rich areas along infrastructure routes and on public land.

But groups in Oxfordshire were already taking proactive steps in February, including holding the first Oxfordshire Bee Summit.

Organised by Fiona Tavner, from the local branch of Friends of the Earth, it challenged the foremost authorities on bee conservation to come together and brainstorm ways to tackle bee population decline in the county.

At the time, Ms Tavner said: “It’s quite clear that our bees and other wild pollinators such as butterflies and moths are in trouble and need our help. Now it is time to give people the means to get started.”

Calls were made to create a new county-wide body for co-ordinating efforts and the Oxford City Council exective member for parks and sports, Mark Lygo, made assurances that despite tight budgets action would take action.

So, what next after the summit?

Ms Tavner reports: “I’ve been in contact with Oxford City Council and we’re going to set up a pollinator advisory group to advise the council in regard to improving the pollinator environment across the city.

“As a major landowner, the city council can play a large role in improving the pollinator environment, for example through its planting schemes, reducing grass cutting, turning areas over to wildflowers and not using neonicitinoid-based pesticides.”

They aim to set up the new group within a month and start taking action by spring.

City council leader Bob Price is keen as well, describing the bee summit as “inspiring”, and has said the council will reviews its parks policies to accomodate bee-friendly changes.

He said: “The plan is to get things moving with this as fast as we can. If we need more money for this we will look at it but at the moment we are fairly optimistic.”

Friends of the Earth hopes the advisory group could also expand into other parts of Oxfordshire as well. But the main effort at the moment seems to be focused on not allowing the issue to be forgotten.

Ms Tavner added: “At the moment, we are trying to keep the momentum going. We need to look to the largest landowners and bring them into the conversation.”

In this county, key players include the University of Oxford, the Church of England and the county and district councils. What these groups can do, campaigners argue, is encourage more bee-friendly plants on their grounds. But attendees of the summit also called for private firms to come forward and consult them.

Peter Chaunt, chairman of the Oxfordshire Bee Keeping Association, was called on by DHL, in Bicester’s Charbridge Way business park, to provide advice to the courier firm, which was undertaking a large-scale landscaping programme.

Mr Chaunt said: “We have also been approached by firms at the Begbroke Science Park for the same reasons. We are happy to talk to anyone who wants help with landscaping. I suppose part of our role in all this will come down to how many organisations ask us for advice. What we are hoping is that more will come forward.”

The Oxfordshire Bee Keeping Association has about 200 members in the county, which it estimates covers about 800 hives — plenty of expertise to draw on.

More ambitious schemes are also being championed by charities like Buglife, which wants to establish so-called ‘b-lines’ up and down the country.

This would involve planting strips of wildflowers and shrubs along the edges of fields and roads to increase supplies of pollen and nectar for insects which need it.

To make the scheme a proper success though, farmers need to be on board.

Natural England offers “environmental stewardship” schemes to them, which the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) says 70 per cent have now taken up.

One example is Faringdon farmer Tom Allen-Stevens, who owns and manages Wicklesham Lodge.

About 17 per cent of Mr Allen-Stevens’ farmland — 30 hectares — is currently dedicated to field margins for the benefit of wildlife. That is higher than the national average of about six per cent and down to the fact that his land is not as productive as one in, say, Lincolnshire with high-grade soil, where it would make less economic sense, he pointed out.

And Mr Allen-Stevens says he is “happy to do it.”

He said: “I don’t get paid on anything I do over and above, though I estimate the extra doesn’t cost me too much either. I’ve done no detailed ecological survey, but I’m aware the wildflowers we’ve established provide pollen and nectar sources for a far greater extended window than arable crops or productive pasture provide.”

There is a production cost to the farm, and also a management cost, but at the moment that is offset by the annual £5,240 funding he receives from Natural England.

The money itself comes from the EU and is redestributed by the Government through a central pot.

Mr Allen-Stevens may not be able to continue the arrangement in its current form though, because in 2015 a new package comes in, thanks to budget cuts, that will cover fewer farmers.

Mr Allen-Stevens says he is unlikely to qualify and that only five per cent of his pollinator land would be covered.

He added: “I think the Government will want us to do the Big Society thing — voluntarily provide a public good that was previously paid for. I feel farmers would be foolish to be suckered into such a raw deal.

“But if this land is ploughed up, much of what we have done over the past 20 years will go to waste and I just think that’s a shame.”

Outside of the big landowners, the public has a role to play as well. People wanting to help can plant fruit trees, shrubs and any type of plant that is bee-friendly.

Like the inner workings of a hive, the only way to save the bees is for the country to work as one unit.