A practitioner’s perspective on what we know about safeguarding pollinators on farmland

Abstract

Farmers understand the general importance of pollinators, and through their management of cropped land and non-cropped areas on the farm they have the potential to do more than any other group to help provide habitat and food for pollinating insects. Pollinators are a continually topical issue for the media and policymakers, and against this challenging background it is not always clear what the best approaches are for farmers or land managers to take to protect and increase pollinators. What do we know about the state of pollinator populations on farmland in the UK? To what extent can the use of agri-environment measures, the maintenance and creation of other habitats, and the management of pesticide use, help protect and increase pollinator populations? This paper explores these questions by providing a farming perspective on the evidence in these areas; reflecting on what the knowns and unknowns are, and identifying where there are still gaps in the evidence that need to be plugged to better conserve and manage pollinators on farmland.