Ministers Noonan and Hackett announce support for the establishment of a pilot National Pollinator Monitoring Scheme
Ministers Malcolm Noonan and Pippa Hackett have announced dual Department support for a pilot initiative to establish a National Pollinator Monitoring Scheme. The scheme will track changes in wild pollinators across Ireland and is part of an initiative across much of Europe.
Announcing the pilot, Minister of State for Heritage at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage Malcolm Noonan acknowledged there were many key players for a scheme that will monitor wild pollinators (bumblebees, solitary bees, hoverflies and butterflies) across a network of 50 sites incorporating farmland, semi-natural and public land.
“We committed to a Pollinator Plan in the Programme for Government and this work is a substantial contribution to improving our understanding of, and conservation of, bees and other important pollinators.” He said. “This National Pollinator Monitoring Scheme will build on the existing programmes of the National Biodiversity Data Centre, bringing added value to the work of the Centre in Waterford. We have seen great strides in caring for pollinators in towns and villages, parks and gardens and I hope we will see the same in the farming landscapes of Ireland in the years to come.
I want to acknowledge the Heritage Council in facilitating this collaboration between our two Departments and the Data Centre.”
Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine Pippa Hackett said: “I am delighted to see my department collaborating with the National Parks and Wildlife Service to support this pilot. It will support the All Ireland Pollinator Plan and proposed EU pollinator monitoring requirements by establishing a robust national monitoring framework. This will deliver key metrics on pollinator population status and trends, and complement the long-term citizen science monitoring that is already being done through the All-Ireland Bumblebee Monitoring Scheme.”
Dr Liam Lysaght, Director of the National Biodiversity Data Centre noted: “Monitoring biodiversity is an essential first step in the protection of pollination and other ecosystem services, for polices or actions to be effective they must have a sound evidence base. The National Biodiversity Data Centre looks forward to working with NPWS and the Dept of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to deliver this evidence base.”
The All-Ireland Pollinator Plan 2021-2025 is supported by both the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the National Parks and Wildlife Service at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. It identifies a clear need for long-term monitoring mechanisms for wild pollinators, so that the impact of the Plan can be properly assessed. The EU Pollinators Initiative (2018) calls on Member States to develop national pollinator strategies and to establish monitoring mechanisms, with indicators to enable evaluation of actions taken to tackle the decline of pollinators. In announcing this new initiative, Ireland places itself at the forefront of pollinator conservation in Europe.
ENDS.
Note for Editors:
All-Ireland Pollinator Plan
- The second All-Ireland Pollinator Plan, launched last March, provides a five-year roadmap to help bees and nature
- The first Plan generated unprecedented support from communities, local authorities, farmers, schools, businesses
- The new Plan builds on that success with 186 actions outlining increased ambition for pollinator conservation
- The National Parks and Wildlife Service in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is funding a full-time project officer to support the Plan
- The Department of Agriculture is funding a full-time project officer to support implementation of the farmland actions
For more information go to https://pollinators.ie/aipp-2021-2025/