Ireland one of the first countries in Europe with a strategy

[Greengage]

Heard this morning on the News that Ireland is one of the first countries in Europe with a strategy to address the issue of reduction in pollinators.
heard one person say If all the bees die we will be finished too, someone forgot to mention that Rice, Oats, Wheat, barley, Potatoes are not pollinated by bees. Ok there may be a problem with habitat loss, habitat fragmentation and Mono-crops. Liam Lysagh from Biodiversity Ireland was on but he got rushed along couple of minutes to make his point as usual natural history does not generate income from advertisers on our national Radio. Where were NIHBS or IBKA pro people to give their input. More misinformation by our state broadcaster.
http://www.rte.ie/news/2015/0917/728363-pollinator-plan/

[mbc]

http://gov.wales/topics/environmentcountryside/consmanagement/conservationbiodiversity/action-plan-for-pollinators/?lang=en
Not quite as quick as th Cardiff Bay taffia!

[Greengage]

I wonder does it intend to look after native pollinators :rolleyes: or will it include imported honey bees and bumblebees.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/earthnews/10185551/Importing-bumblebees-for-farming-and-gardening-is-spreading-disease.html
http://www.agralan-growers.co.uk/bumblebees-for-pollination-12-c.asp

[SDM]

I wonder does it intend to look after native pollinators :rolleyes: or will it include imported honey bees and bumblebees.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/earthnews/10185551/Importing-bumblebees-for-farming-and-gardening-is-spreading-disease.html
http://www.agralan-growers.co.uk/bumblebees-for-pollination-12-c.asp


How would they differentiate ? Surely protecting one would protect the other.

[Greengage]

I am only being mischevious, but here is the question this report was published by Biodiversity ireland who are based on the Waterford institute of technology what have they done on the campus to encourage biodiversity, if you look up photos of the campus you will see pristine lawns no weeds, carparks clean and sprayed, artifical football pitches, areas around trees sprayed, maybe they should look closer to home before telling everyone else what they should be doing. Iam all in favour of the plan and I hope there is money to invest in it. But we have an election coming up in the next year and being on the enviromental bandwagon will help.
"Surely protecting one would protect the other". Thats true but what of the native stock is left. As you can see by all the chat here re AMM do pure stock really exist and is it native to here or Europe as for the bumblebee Bombus terrstris is the one that has being sold into ireland to pollinate crops, the one being imported is not native it is B terrestris Audax. The latest on that, I believe the companies are collecting native Bumbus terrestris from Scotland and these are being imported into Ireland but they are not the same genetic strain as our native ones and do escape to interbreed with native stock and they were carrying pests before the EEC clamped down on their transport . Remember next time you put Ketchup on your chips, you will use ketchup proccessed in Holland from Tomatoes grown in Spain and pollinated by bumblebees bred in Latvia from stock collected in Poland.

[Bumble]

It would be interesting to know how the Ireland and Wales strategies compare with the England one rolled out last year https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-pollinator-strategy-for-bees-and-other-pollinators-in-england

I don't know if it's yet had much real impact in my area, but it has been nice to see areas of wildflowers instead of tidy grass in front of the council offices. How long it will last is another thing altogether, because some local worthies have already written to the local paper complaining that the seed heads look untidy.

[Jon]

because some local worthies have already written to the local paper complaining that the seed heads look untidy.

That's a big part of the problem. For every person who supports habitat creation there are several who complain constantly that natural areas look untidy. We had a talk at the UBKA from the head of the roads service, the body in charge of maintaining roadside verges. He said that there are a vast number of people who just want everything cut back and 'tidied up' all the time.