̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Lynn Dicks

Fish bellies, fava beans and food security

plc32 — Fri, 05 Apr 2024 15:20:27 +0000

Cambridge Zero and Cambridge Global Food Security gather academics and experts to share solutions for the planet’s looming food production problem.

Cambridge experts on UK drought and climate change

lw355 — Tue, 16 Aug 2022 09:25:55 +0000

From pollinators to profits, food to fires, here's what Cambridge experts say about the impacts of water scarcity – and what it signals about our changing climate.

Pollinators: first global risk index for species declines and effects on humanity

fpjl2 — Mon, 16 Aug 2021 15:01:29 +0000

̽��ֱ��Global South may have most to lose from pollinator loss, with Latin America at particular risk due to crop exports and indigenous cultures.

Living Planet Report reveals 68% decline in global wildlife populations since 1970

Anonymous — Wed, 09 Sep 2020 23:01:00 +0000

̽��ֱ��WWF’s Living Planet Report 2020 presents a comprehensive overview of the state of our natural world as captured by the Living Planet Index (LPI) of the Zoological Society of London (ZSL). Almost 21,000 populations of over 4,000 vertebrate species were tracked between 1970 and 2016, with contributions from over 125 experts from around the world.

“ ̽��ֱ��Living Planet Report 2020 underlines how humanity’s increasing destruction of nature is having catastrophic impacts not only on wildlife populations, but on human health and all aspects of our lives,” said Marco Lambertini, Director General of WWF International.

He added: “In the midst of a global pandemic, it is now more important than ever to take unprecedented and coordinated global action to halt and reverse the loss of biodiversity and wildlife populations across the globe by the end of the decade.”

̽��ֱ��report shows that the main cause of the dramatic decline in species populations on land is habitat loss and degradation, including deforestation, driven by food production. Factors believed to increase the planet’s vulnerability to pandemics, including land-use change and the use and trade of wildlife, are also drivers of the decline.

Endangered species include the eastern lowland gorilla, whose numbers in the Kahuzi-Biega National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo have seen an estimated 87 percent decline between 1994 and 2015 mostly due to illegal hunting, and the African grey parrot in southwest Ghana, whose numbers fell by up to 99 percent between 1992 and 2014 due to threats posed by trapping for the wild bird trade and habitat loss.

Wildlife populations found in freshwater habitats have suffered a decline of 84 per cent - the starkest average population decline in any biome. For example, the spawning population of the Chinese sturgeon in China’s Yangtze river declined by 97 percent between 1982 and 2015 due to the damming of the waterway.

̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge zoologists Dr Lynn Dicks and Dr Edgar Turner contributed a summary of global insect decline to the report. They reveal evidence of recent, rapid declines in insect abundance and diversity in some places, but not everywhere. ̽��ֱ��researchers highlight the importance of long-term monitoring of insect abundance around the world.

Dicks, a Lecturer in Animal Ecology in the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s Department of Zoology, said: “Most information about insects comes from a small number of countries in the northern hemisphere. There is very little information from large parts of the world such as Africa, South America and Asia, where land use change and agricultural expansion - key drivers of insect decline - are happening fast.”

She added: “What happens to insects matters a lot to humanity. These small six-legged creatures play central roles in the world’s ecosystems - as waste processors, pollinators, predators, and prey. Without them, humans - and all of nature - could be in a lot of trouble.”

Dr Andrew Terry, ZSL’s Director of Conservation said: “This report is clear evidence of the damage human activity is doing to the natural world. If nothing changes, populations will undoubtedly continue to fall, driving wildlife to extinction and threatening the integrity of the ecosystems on which we all depend. But we also know that conservation works and species can be brought back from the brink. With commitment, investment and expertise, these trends can be reversed.”

Stabilising and reversing the loss of nature caused by humans’ destruction of natural habitats will only be possible if bolder, more ambitious conservation efforts are embraced, and transformational changes made to the way we produce and consume food. Changes include making food production and trade more efficient and ecologically sustainable, reducing waste, and favouring healthier and more environmentally-friendly diets. Implementing these measures together, rather than in isolation, will allow the world to more rapidly alleviate pressures on wildlife habitats.

̽��ֱ��Living Planet Report 2020 launches less than a week before the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly, when leaders are expected to review the progress made on the Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Agreement and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Bringing together world leaders, businesses and civil society, the meeting will develop the post-2020 framework for action for global biodiversity.

Lambertini said: “With leaders gathering virtually for the UN General Assembly in a few days’ time, this research can help us secure a New Deal for Nature and People which will be key to the long-term survival of wildlife, plant and insect populations and the whole of nature, including humankind. A New Deal has never been needed more.”

̽��ֱ��Living Planet Report is WWF's flagship publication and is produced every two years as a comprehensive study of trends in global biodiversity and the health of the planet. This is the 13th edition.

Adapted from a press release by WWF.

Global populations of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish have declined by over two-thirds in less than half a century, due in large part to the same environmental destruction that is contributing to the emergence of zoonotic diseases like COVID-19, according to a World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) report released today.

What happens to insects matters a lot to humanity

Lynn Dicks

NASA/NOAA/GSFC/Suomi NPP/VIIRS/Norman Kuring

'Blue Marble' image of Earth

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Pollinator species vital to our food supply are under threat, warn experts

fpjl2 — Fri, 26 Feb 2016 10:20:44 +0000

Delegates from almost 100 national Governments have gathered in Kuala Lumpur to discuss how to address the threats facing animal pollinators: the bees, flies, birds, butterflies, moths, wasps, beetles and bats that transport the pollen essential to the reproduction of much of the world’s crops and plant life.

It is the first time the global community has gathered on this scale to focus on the preservation of the small species that help fertilise more than three quarters of the leading kinds of global food crops and nearly 90% of flowering wild plant species.

A report on pollinator species produced over two years by an international team of 77 scientists, including Cambridge’s Dr Lynn Dicks, has been adopted by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) today. IPBES has 124 member Governments.

̽��ֱ��report is the first assessment ever issued by IPBES, and the first time that such an assessment has brought together multiple knowledge systems comprehensively, including scientific, and indigenous and local knowledge. It will highlight the threats to animal pollinators, and the major implications of these species’ declines for the world’s food supply and economy.

But the report also details the ways that pollinator power can be used for the benefit of biodiversity, food security and people: by harnessing natural relationships between plants and animals to improve agricultural yields and strengthen local communities.

“It is incredible to see international Governments coming together to discuss the problem of pollinators in this way,” says Lynn Dicks, from Cambridge ̽��ֱ��’s Department of Zoology.

“Without pollinators, many of us would not be able to enjoy chocolate, coffee and vanilla ice cream, or healthy foods like blueberries and brazil nuts. ̽��ֱ��value of pollinators goes way beyond this. People’s livelihoods and culture are intimately linked with pollinators around the world. All the major world religions have sacred passages that mention bees.”

̽��ֱ��volume of pollinator-dependent food produced has increased by 300% over the past 50 years, including most fruits from apple to avocado, as well as coffee, cocoa, and nuts such as cashews. This shows an increasing dependence of agriculture on pollinators.

Such crops now occupy around 35% of all agricultural land. While these crops rely on animal pollination to varying degrees – along with, for example, wind-blown pollination – the scientists estimate that between 5 and 8% of all global crop production is directly attributable to animal pollinators, with an annual market value that may be as much as 577 billion US dollars.

However, the experts warn that a variety of agricultural practices are contributing to steep declines in key pollinating species across Europe and North America. In Europe, populations are declining for at least 37% of bee and 31% of butterfly species.

A lack of data for Africa, Latin America and Asia means we are currently in the dark about the status of pollinators in many parts of the world, say the scientists. Where national ‘red lists’ are available, they show that up to 50% of global bee species, for example, may be threatened with extinction.

For some crops, including cocoa, wild pollinators contribute more to global crop production than managed honey bees. Wild bee populations are of particular concern, as bees are “dominant” pollinators, say scientists, and visit over 90% of the leading global crop types.

Changes in land-use and habitat destruction are key drivers of pollinator decline. Increasing crop monocultures – where the same plant is homogenously grown across vast swathes of land – mean that the plant diversity required by many pollinators is dwindling.

Increased use of pesticides are a big problem for many species – insecticides such as neonicotinoids have been shown to harm the survival of wild bees, for example – and climate change is shifting seasonal activities of key pollinators, the full effects of which may not be apparent for several decades.

̽��ֱ��decline of practices based on indigenous and local knowledge also threatens pollinators. These practices include traditional farming systems, maintenance of diverse landscapes and gardens, kinship relationships that protect specific pollinators, and cultures and languages that are connected to pollinators.

Everyone should think carefully about whether they need to use insecticides and herbicides in their own gardens

Many livelihoods across the world depend on pollinating animals, say scientists. Pollinator-dependent crops include leading export products in developing countries (such as coffee and cocoa) and developed countries (such as almonds), providing employment and income for millions of people.

If the worst-case scenario – a complete loss of animal pollinators – occurred, not only would between 5 and 8% of the world’s food production be wiped out, it would lower the availability of crops and wild plants that provide essential micronutrients to human diets, risking vastly increased numbers of people suffering from Vitamin A, iron and folate deficiency.

However, the assessment says that by deploying strategies for supporting pollinators, we could not only preserve the volume of food they help us produce, but we could boost populations and in doing so could even improve production in sustainable farming systems, so-called “ecological intensification”.

Many pollinator-friendly strategies are relatively straightforward. Maintaining patches of semi-natural habitats throughout productive agricultural land would provide nesting and ‘floral resources’ for many pollinators. This could be as simple as strips of wild flowers breaking up crop monocultures, for example, and identifying and tending to nest trees in farming settings.

Certain traditional crop rotation practices using seasonal indicators such as flowering to trigger planting also help to maintain diversity – and it is diversity that is at the heart of flourishing pollinator populations.

There are actions that Governments around the world could take, says Dr Dicks, such as raising the standards of pesticide and GMO risk assessment, or supporting training for farmers in how to manage pollination and reduce pesticide use. National-level monitoring of wild pollinators, especially bees, would help to address the lack of long term data on pollinator numbers.

“There are many things individual people can do to help pollinators, and safeguard them for the future,” says Dr Dicks.

“Planting flowers that pollinators use for food, or looking after their habitats in urban and rural areas, will help. Everyone should also think carefully about whether they need to use insecticides and herbicides in their own gardens.”

More information about how to help wild pollinators can be found at the Bees Needs website, which is part of the National Pollinator Strategy for England.

Inset image: Lynn Dicks at the IPBES meeting in Kuala Lumpur.

A new report from experts and Government around the world addresses threats to animal pollinators such as bees, birds and bats that are vital to more than three-quarters of the world’s food crops, and intimately linked to human nutrition, culture and millions of livelihoods. Scientists say simple strategies could harness pollinator power to boost agricultural yield.

People’s livelihoods and culture are intimately linked with pollinators around the world. All the major world religions have sacred passages that mention bees

Lynn Dicks

Dino J. Martins/Nature Kenya

Carpenter bee (Xylocopa flavorufa) visiting coffee flower (Coffea arabica)

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̽��ֱ��Life and Death of the Queen Bumblebee

amb206 — Wed, 23 Sep 2015 09:43:16 +0000

Scroll to the end of the article to listen to the podcast.

Each autumn, colonies of bumblebees die. All, that is, apart from the gravid (egg-carrying) queens who survive the winter in tiny burrows in the ground. Early in the spring, the queen emerges to start making a nest in which to lay her eggs. To do so, she needs the energy provided by nectar and pollen. If she can’t find enough flowers from which to gather these resources, she will die – and the next generation she is carrying will die too.

Bumblebees are among the UK’s estimated 1,500 species of wild pollinators and play a vital role in the environment. They transfer pollen from plant to plant – and thus ensure that plants reproduce. An estimated 75% of the crops we eat depend on pollination. Bumblebees are particularly important pollinators of beans, raspberries and tomatoes. Uniquely, they are capable of ‘buzz pollination’, producing a high-pitched buzz which releases pollen from pollen-containing tubes inside some flowers. Tomatoes are pollinated like this.

Over the past 80 years or so, there has been a dramatic decline in the distributions of some bumblebee species. Two of the 26 species of bumblebee once common in the UK are now extinct. Scientists think that the factors behind this decline are several and interconnected. Most obvious is the loss of wild flower meadows which have disappeared as farming has become more intensive and fields made larger by the removal of hedgerows. Although many British gardens burst with flowers, many of the showy favourites (such as pansies and begonias) produce little pollen or nectar.

A recent report by Dr Lynn Dicks (Department of Zoology) and staff at Natural England makes an important contribution to the development of nation-wide strategies to halt – and reverse – the loss of wild pollinators such as bumblebees. In 2013, a rare and time-limited opportunity opened up for scientists to contribute to the development of an ‘agri-environment package’ for wild pollinators as part of the new Countryside Stewardship scheme, launched earlier this year.

As an expert in the ecology of flower-visiting insects, Dicks used this ‘policy window’ to bring together a wide range of available information and ask key questions about wild pollinators and their relationship with the farmed environment. In providing tentative answers to these questions, her paper provides ballpark figures on aspects of land management that determine population levels of wild pollinators, including bumblebees, and bolsters arguments for policies that encourage farmers to sow a mix of wild flowers.

“An agri-environment package is a bundle of management options that supply sufficient resources to support a target group of species. Data from a similar package, aimed at helping farmers provide resources for species of birds known to be declining, are not yet publically available. But some of the measures in the package are known to have led to an upturn in numbers of six target species – including skylarks and yellowhammers – which is most encouraging,” says Dicks.

“We depend on pollinators for food production so it’s in our interests to halt drops in numbers. If species are declining, it’s because they lack specific resources – or because other factors are reducing their numbers faster than they can reproduce. Some risks to pollinators – notably pesticides and climate change – are difficult to quantify and politically challenging. An alternative is to focus policy on providing the resources that are lacking – such as nectar-rich flowers.”

̽��ֱ��most critical period for bumblebee survival is March and April when the queens that have hibernated over the winter need access to enough nectar and pollen to raise their first batch of workers within an estimated 1km radius of their nests. ̽��ֱ��first batch of eggs laid by the queen become female workers whose role is to feed the new colony by visiting flowers to gather nectar. Throughout the summer the queen will produce further batches of eggs, seldom leaving the nest. She will eventually control a nest of as many as 400 individuals, including new queens. Honeybee hives, in comparison, typically contain around 50,000 bees.

Many commercial crops flower several weeks after the queen bumblebees are most in need of nectar. Oil seed rape, for example, produces its bright yellow flowers in May and June. Nectar and pollen provided by these crops are valuable to later batches of bumblebees. However, the first batch of bumblebees relies on plants that flower in early spring – including those associated with rough land (such as comfrey and white deadnettle) and hedgerow species (such as willow, hawthorn and blackthorn).

Recent research revealed that wild pollinators provide a much more important service to commercial crops than previously thought. Dicks’ report identifies opportunities for enhancing the environment for six species of wild bee including three species of bumblebee by sowing wild flowers and providing environments for nests.

She compiled and analysed data from a number of wildlife conservation and research organisations, including the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, to build an overall picture of the resources that these insects need to flourish.

By calculating the pollen demands of individual bees, and the resulting demand for flowers, Dicks has come up with some approximate figures in terms of the percentage of land and hedgerow needed to resource a healthy population of selected wild pollinators. Using a 100-hectare block of land as the basis for calculations, she estimates that the provision of a 2% flower-rich habitat and 1km flowering hedgerow will supply the six pollinator species with enough pollen to feed their larvae.

“We suggest that farmers sow headlands, field corners and other areas with mixes that will flower in the summer months, but they also need to manage hedgerows, woodland edges, margins and verges to enhance early and late flowering species and provide nesting and hibernating opportunities,” says Dicks. “It’s really important that the packages offered to farmers through the Countryside Stewardship scheme are easy to implement and well supported by financial incentives and advice. Because we are learning more all the time about the interaction between wild pollinators and the environment, schemes also need to have built-in flexibility.”

Next in the Cambridge Animal Alphabet: R is for an animal that is often found among the pages of children's literature.

Have you missed the series so far? Catch up on Medium here.

Inset images: Bombus pascuorum (Joan Chaplin); Bombus lapidarius (Tessa Bramall).

The Cambridge Animal Alphabet series celebrates Cambridge's connections with animals through literature, art, science and society. Here, Q is for Queen Bumblebee, one of the UK's 1,500 species of wild pollinators that play a vital role in the environment and food production.

We depend on pollinators for food production so it’s in our interests to halt drops in numbers

Lynn Dicks

Linda Peall

Bombus pascuorum

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New EU reforms fail European wildlife

fpjl2 — Thu, 05 Jun 2014 18:15:15 +0000

Latest reforms of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) have been declared significantly “greener” by the Members of the European Parliament, following promises to make the environment and climate change ‘core issues’ for the new CAP.

However, leading conservation experts writing in the journal Science warn that after three years of CAP negotiations the environmental reforms are so diluted they will be of no benefit to European wildlife, and biodiversity will continue to decline across the continent.

Under the new CAP almost a third of direct payments to farmers are now subject to conditions relating to ‘greening measures’. However, disagreements over the measures have led to a wide range of exemptions being put in place.

After analysing the details of the reformed CAP, experts from a number of major organisations revealed that about half of all farmland and 80-90% of all the farmers in the EU could be exempt from having to abide by two of the three new environmental requirements. At the same time, budgets to support voluntary ‘greening measures’ have been reduced.

Individual member states must use the flexibility offered by the reforms to design national plans for sustaining ecosystems, say the experts. Unless member states take serious steps beyond those required for the CAP, the EU’s own biodiversity targets for 2020 are very unlikely to be met.

̽��ֱ��experts – who range from scientists to policy analysts and conservationists – offer six ‘immediate actions’ that states should take. These include comprehensive mapping of existing grasslands and increasing the availability of ecological expertise to farmers. They also list six recommendations for the EU to consider towards the next, still-much-needed revision of the CAP.

They hope these recommendations encourage individual states and the EU as a whole to move towards sustainable agriculture, securing vital ecosystems for “current and future generations”.

“ ̽��ֱ��targets implicitly assume that the biodiversity-related measures under the CAP are effective at protecting wildlife. While some specific, carefully designed actions – such as planting flowers for pollinators, restoring species-rich grassland, or providing nesting areas for ground-nesting birds – have been shown to work when properly implemented, these are not included as options under the new compulsory greening elements,” said Dr Lynn Dicks, a co-author from the Department of Zoology in the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

“ ̽��ֱ��weak environmental reforms in the CAP put the fate of Europe’s declining biodiversity in the hands of the individual member states,” said Dr Guy Pe’er, lead author from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, who collaborated with Lynn Dicks and William Sutherland from Cambridge, as well as experts from RSPB, the Society for Conservation Biology and others.

“ ̽��ֱ��EU should openly communicate this dependency, and encourage member states to make responsible decisions, rather than pretend that the reform allows meeting the EU’s important ecological targets,” he said.

Expansion of the EU and its common market continues to drive agricultural intensification across Europe at the expense of wildlife and natural habitats, say the experts.

̽��ֱ��Common Agricultural Policy – which uses almost 40% of the EU’s budget and influences the management of half of its entire territory – provides subsidies that increase the scale of farming throughout the EU. This has led to increased grassland conversion and peatland drainage. ̽��ֱ��situation is particularly severe in new member states, where the use of agri-chemicals such as fertilizers has shot up.

This continues to take a heavy toll on wildlife, with dramatic declines in everything from the farmland bird index to ‘permanent’ grassland that, in newer member states, has shrunk over 11% in just the last decade.

To address this, the new CAP made 30% of all direct payments to farmers conditional on compliance with three ‘greening measures’: establishing Ecological Focus Areas, maintaining permanent grasslands, and setting minimum requirements on number of crops grown to stop areas slipping into homogenous ‘monocultures’.

However, following thorough analysis, experts have found that the large number of clauses introduced to the greening measures exempt over 88% of farmers in the EU, and over 48% of its agricultural areas from having to incorporate Ecological Focus Areas. 81% of arable farmers are now exempt from the crop diversity measure, and the grassland measure allows another 5% decline in area.

“ ̽��ֱ��measures themselves do not include quality criteria for what counts as green,” said Pe’er. “ ̽��ֱ��thresholds set will allow on-going intensification under a green label”.

They conclude that the CAP reforms fail to fulfil Target 3A of the EU Biodiversity Strategy, which explicitly requires the EU to “maximise areas […] covered by biodiversity-related measures under the CAP”.

“ ̽��ֱ��CAP should pay for ‘public goods’ associated with sustainable farming: thriving wildlife, beautiful landscapes, clean water, fertile soils, land that contributes to a stable climate, and diverse communities of wild insects to pollinate crops or regulate pest outbreaks. These are things enjoyed by everyone but not so easy to pay for through food sales,” added Dicks.

“Finding a way to produce enough food for humanity without losing these assets is perhaps the biggest challenge of the twenty-first century. Unfortunately, the latest CAP reform has not found a way to secure them.”

Inset image: Common Blue Butterfly by Matt Clark

Despite political proclamation of increased environmental focus, experts argue that the European Union’s recent agricultural reforms are far too weak to have any positive impact on the continent’s shrinking farmland biodiversity, and call on member states to take action.

̽��ֱ��targets implicitly assume that the biodiversity-related measures under the CAP are effective at protecting wildlife

Lynn Dicks

Michael Gil

Lets Play a Game:)!

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Translating science for conservation: bees benefit first

bjb42 — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0000

For the first time, scientific knowledge and experience about how to conserve wild bees around the world has been brought together by conservation scientists led by Professor William J. Sutherland and Dr Lynn Dicks at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

̽��ֱ��synopsis of evidence on bee conservation is meant to inform people taking action or spending money to help wild bees - anyone from farmers to international NGOs - about what works and what doesn't. It is part of a project called Conservation Evidence, which aims to make conservation practice more science-based.

Bees are the most important pollinators globally, and their decline has received much publicity. "There are more than 25,000 species of bee worldwide," says Dr Simon G. Potts, an expert on pollinator conservation from the ̽��ֱ�� of Reading who advised on the development of the bee synopsis. "In areas where good quality data are available, severe declines in many species have been documented." In response, governments and international organisations are now investing in pollinator conservation.

̽��ֱ��bee synopsis, developed in partnership with an international group of bee experts, lists 59 different actions you could take to benefit wild bees. They range from providing nest boxes or planting flowers to training beekeepers to keep native species. For each intervention, evidence is summarised in plain English.

In some cases, the evidence tells a clear story. Leaving strips at the edge of crop fields untreated with herbicides and pesticides does not help bumblebees, for example - two replicated trials in the UK have found no more bees on these strips than in ordinary crop fields. But there is evidence from many parts of the world that providing nest boxes on agricultural land can benefit solitary bees. Twenty-nine studies show that solitary bees, including endangered species, will use nest boxes and three studies show numbers of nesting bees can double over three years with repeated nest box provision.

Bees can be problematic in places where they are not native, and there is some evidence about how to reduce the impacts of invasive bee species. A concerted effort to eradicate European buff-tailed bumblebees from small patches of Japanese countryside, for example, increased numbers of native bumblebees, but did not remove the invaders altogether.

"This synopsis is a great step forward in providing a clear evidence base for anyone setting out to conserve wild bees, from conservation agencies to individuals," says Professor Andrew Bourke, a bumblebee expert from the ̽��ֱ�� of East Anglia, UK, and member of the Advisory Board for the bee synopsis. He was surprised by the often low success rate of artificial nest boxes for bumblebees. "This work highlights how much more there is to learn about bees," he says.

As well as helping to inform decisions about bee conservation, the synopsis shows where there are gaps in our knowledge. There is no direct evidence to show whether increasing the amount of natural habitat in farmed areas can help bees, for example, and very little evidence for the effects of restricting pesticide use on bees, although conservationists often advocate these actions. "Habitat preservation and the proper application and use of insecticides are the most important issues in bee conservation now," says Peter Kwapong, of the International Stingless Bee Centre in Ghana, a member of the Advisory Board. Clearly, these are areas where research should focus.

̽��ֱ��Conservation Evidence project also has an open access journal where conservationists can document their experience and an online database of evidence published elsewhere, relating to conservation interventions. ̽��ֱ��series of synopses, of which Bee Conservation is the first, will cover other major species groups, habitat types and issues. Synopses are already being prepared for birds, butterflies, grassland and farmland.

" ̽��ֱ��bee synopsis brings together, for the first time, a systematic overview of conservation practices that can really help protect bees," says Potts. " ̽��ֱ��challenge now is for policymakers to take up these actions."

A project to make conservation science accessible and relevant to conservationists and policymakers launches its first major synopsis of evidence, on bee conservation.

In areas where good quality data are available, severe declines in many species have been documented

Dr Simon G. Potts

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Bee in flight

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