{"id":1845,"date":"2018-08-04T09:23:27","date_gmt":"2018-08-04T08:23:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/?p=1845"},"modified":"2018-11-14T13:01:13","modified_gmt":"2018-11-14T12:01:13","slug":"eu-pollinators-initiative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/?p=1845","title":{"rendered":"EU Pollinators initiative"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a style=\"font-size: 1rem;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/BrianKPMG.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-1846\" title=\"BrianKPMG\" src=\"http:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/BrianKPMG-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a> <a style=\"font-size: 1rem;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/brianforage.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-1847\" title=\"brianforage\" src=\"http:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/brianforage-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a> <a style=\"font-size: 1rem;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/briantalkingbeetrailapp.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-1848\" title=\"briantalkingbeetrailapp\" src=\"http:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/briantalkingbeetrailapp-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a> <a style=\"font-size: 1rem;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/brianurbanbees.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-1849\" title=\"brianurbanbees\" src=\"http:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/brianurbanbees-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 1.5rem;\">Urban Bees went to Brussels last month to take part in a consultation workshop on the EU&#8217;s proposed initiative for pollinators. With a reported dramatic decline in insects leading to warnings of <\/span><a style=\"font-size: 1rem;\" href=\"http:\/\/https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2017\/oct\/18\/warning-of-ecological-armageddon-after-dramatic-plunge-in-insect-numbers\">&#8216;ecological Armageddon&#8217;<\/a> <span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"> any initiative can\u2019t come soon enough.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Our session &#8211; attended by NGOs, academics and policy makers &#8211; looked at how to best protect pollinators in urban areas. We introduced participants to our educational work in London, where we are raising awareness about the importance of improving forage and habitat for all bees and other pollinators through \u2018meet the honeybee\u2019 lunchtime classes, bee spotter sessions and our <a href=\"http:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/beetrail\/beetrail.htm\">King\u2019s Cross Bee App<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>We suggested the best approach the EU could take would be to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>regulate that all new developments in cities must be pollinator-friendly with living roofs and parks and green spaces that are good for pollinators as well as for people<\/li>\n<li>ban the sale and use of pesticides and weed killers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Policy makers made it clear that the EU can\u2019t legislate on city developments as this is up to individual member states. They also said the EU doesn\u2019t ban things, which seemed odd as they are about to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2018\/feb\/28\/total-ban-on-bee-harming-pesticides-likely-after-major-new-eu-analysis\">introduce a field ban neonicotinoids across the EU<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Ten years ago, when honeybees started to vanish in alarming numbers in the US mainly due to what was dubbed Colony Collapse Disorder, any pesticide ban was completely unthinkable. Pesticides were dismissed by most scientist and politicians as having little to do with the problem. Conveniently for the manufacturers no independent testing was done at that time, and the public was unaware of all of this. \u00a0But that soon changed. \u00a0The mobilisation of millions of concerned people across the globe, together with the potentially huge economic impact of bee losses on the food supply, led governments to invest in independent research and take the protection of bees \u2013 honeybees in particular &#8211; seriously. \u00a0A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2013\/apr\/29\/bee-harming-pesticides-banned-europe\">temporary ban on neonics<\/a> followed in 2013 after plenty of research showing they were part of the problem and pressure on politicians from NGOs from Friends of the Earth to 38 Degrees, and their millions of members to &#8216;save the bees&#8217;. \u00a0Now it\u2019s even clearer that they are a major problem for bees\u2019 health a total field ban looks likely.<\/p>\n<p>So the moral of the story is to exert pressure and don\u2019t give up until the politicians start to listen.<\/p>\n<p>Other good suggestions to come out of the workshop included introducing:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>an EU award like the Blue Flag scheme for clean beaches for pollinator-friendly spaces<\/li>\n<li>a kitemark like FairTrade for food manufacturers and their suppliers that support pollinators.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>To have your say on the public consultation on the EU initiative for pollinators which ends on Thursday 5 April.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Urban Bees went to Brussels last month to take part in a consultation workshop on the EU&#8217;s proposed initiative for pollinators. With a reported dramatic decline in insects leading to warnings of &#8216;ecological Armageddon&#8217; any initiative can\u2019t come soon enough. Our session &#8211; attended by NGOs, academics and policy makers &#8211; looked at how to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1845\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}