To mark the Bees’ Needs Week 2021 (12 – 18 July), Environment Minister Rebecca Pow has called on everyone, from individuals, farmers, gardeners, or managers of urban spaces, to take five simple actions to care for bees and other pollinators:
- Grow more flowers, shrubs and trees
- Let your garden grow wild
- Cut your grass less often
- Don’t disturb insect nest and hibernation spots
- Think carefully about whether to use pesticides
Environment Minister Rebecca Pow commented on the announcement: “Bees and other pollinators are not just a welcome and much loved sight in our gardens, parks, villages and countryside – they are vital to a healthy environment, driving our economy and boosting biodiversity.
“Everyone can help them flourish by leaving patches of garden to grow wild, growing more flowers, cutting grass less often, not disturbing insect nests, and carefully considering how we use pesticides.
“This is also one of the key messages of our recently launched ‘Plant for our Planet’ campaign – aimed at inspiring the public to support nature recovery by engaging in a variety of green activities to move us to a more sustainable future as we build back greener after the pandemic, and step up our efforts in tackling the climate crisis which is the focus of the COP26 summit.
“Actions that we can take for pollinators and biodiversity will enable us to tackle and adapt to climate change – I encourage everyone to get involved.”
Bees and other pollinators are an essential part of the environment and play a crucial role in food production – they contribute the equivalent of more than £500 million a year to UK agriculture and food production, by improving crop quality and quantity – and are also vital to our wider, natural ecosystems.
Bees’ Needs Week 2021 will see Defra and several green organisations, including the Royal Horticultural Society and Bumblebee Conservation Trust, working together to encourage everyone to help our precious pollinators thrive.
More information about five simple actions is available on the Bumblebee conservation website.
