The total of native bee species in the European continent experiencing dying out has increased twofold during the previous ten-year period, whereas the total of endangered butterfly species has almost doubled.
This pressing issue for essential pollinators was disclosed by scientific assessments for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list, which found that at least 172 bee varieties out of 1,928 were at risk of extinction in the European continent.
The number of butterfly species facing extinction in European nations has grown from 37 to sixty-five since the previous assessment, performed 14 years ago. One type, the large white of Madeira (Pieris wollastoni) has now been declared extinct.
Apart from their beauty and cultural significance, pollinating species like bees and butterflies are crucial elements for our health, our food chains and our economies – supporting the produce, vegetables and seeds that feed us,” said the IUCN’s director general. “The latest assessments of the European red list reveal major obstacles, with threats mounting for butterflies and essential wild bee types.”
The reasons of the rapid recent declines are the ongoing destruction or damage of habitats caused by farming intensification and land abandonment, wetland drainage, livestock overgrazing, and the use of pesticides and fertilisers including neonicotinoid pesticides. The fragmentation of habitat friendly to pollinators significantly raises the danger of extinctions at local level.
Global heating is also revealed to be a primary risk: 52% of all endangered butterflies in Europe are threatened by the climate emergency – roughly twice as many as a previous decade.
Nearly nine out of ten of blooming plants in Europe depend on pollination by animals, according to the wild bee assessment’s lead coordinator. “Unfortunately, wild bee groups are in drastic decline and cannot be easily replaced by managed colonies,” he said. “If non-managed bees vanish, many native plants might be at risk too – of which flower-rich meadows and attractive orchid varieties are just a handful of illustrations.”
Fifteen types of bumblebee species, which play a crucial role in aiding the pollination of legumes like peas, beans, peanuts and clover, and 14 species of cellophane bee species, famous for aiding tree pollination such as willows along with red maples, are now classified as threatened. Simpanurgus phyllopodus, a mining bee type unique to the continent and the sole species of this genus group in European nations, is now evaluated as critically at risk – the scientific category most akin to extinction in the wild.
Butterfly species that are exclusively located on mountain peaks are particularly vulnerable to climate change as they need to move uphill as their environments become more heated but ultimately exhaust available space. In southern Spain, the grayling of Nevada and the Andalusian anomalous blue are among over forty percent of European endemics (only found in Europe) facing extinction.
In the Mediterranean, types such as the critically endangered Karpathos grayling are threatened by severe dry conditions and fires.
Meanwhile, in the Arctic Circle, global warming is causing the timberline to shift northward by many meters each year, with scrub invading bog and tundra. Warmer conditions also mean Arctic deer can no longer cross the ice to browse Arctic grasslands and maintain them clear. Eight types of butterflies are facing extinction in this region, including the fritillary of Freyja and the Arctic ringlet butterfly.
“The greatest living space for all these pollinators is flower-rich grassland and that is disappearing very fast throughout the European continent because of all these reasons,” stated Martin Warren. “The good news is that so many people care now and there’s a lot more consciousness. Under the EU nature restoration legislation, all member states have to reverse the drop in pollinators by 2030, and they are going to have to initiate measures. There are land holders who are interested. Let’s hope they can obtain the encouragements that will help them on their way.”
As stated by the coordinator, there is “readily achievable actions” in terms of measures for pollinating species which will not lower crop yields – and could improve it – such as agricultural producers creating margins rich in flowers around their fields.
EU commissioner for environment, portrayed the preservation condition of wild bees, butterflies and other pollinators as “severe”.
“Immediate and joint measures is necessary to address this risk. Together with member states, the Commission of the European Union has implemented an European Union-wide tracking system for pollinating species based on the EU nature restoration regulation, which will assist in monitoring our progress. Now, we need to focus on implementation and cooperation with member countries to protect our pollinating species,” she said.
The issuance of the evaluations of bees along with butterflies follows the first European-wide assessment of hoverflies, an additional essential pollinating insect category. Published in 2022, it revealed that 37% of all hoverfly types in the European continent were at risk of extinction.
