Farm wildlife funding could be used to save bees

Increased Government funding to boost wildlife offers farmers and other landowners a fantastic opportunity to help declining pollinators while benefiting financially, said leading invertebrate charity Buglife today.

The Higher Level Stewardship scheme, which pays landowners to create healthy habitats, is to receive a funding increase of more than 80 percent by 2014.

Matt Shardlow, Buglife Chief Executive, said: "Bees, hoverflies, butterflies and other pollinators are vital for our crops and food supply but are in decline. The new Higher Level Stewardship scheme funding should be used to create and restore vast areas of wildflower meadows."

"We are urging Government and farmers to take advantage of this increased grant money and to support the ecosystem service provided by pollinators.

Pollinators are essential to human survival and must be preserved for future generations."

The UK has lost over 3,000,000 hectares of flower-rich grassland since World War Two, with only 100,000 hectares remaining and losses on-going.

Declines of bumblebees, honey bees, butterflies, moths and other pollinators are a major concern. However, the last 20 years of stewardship funding has only created 6,500 hectares of new wildflower habitat.

In the USA, creating and restoring wildflower habitat has an annual budget of $1 billion and created 16,600 hectares in 2010 alone.

Buglife would like to see an ambitious joined up network of wildflower meadows established across the UK, known as B-Lines. If supported by Government this could create rivers of flowers and wildlife habitat across the countryside covering 150,000 hectares of land.

"This funding increase, at a time of spending cuts, highlights that threats to pollinators and other biodiversity are being taken very seriously. Farmers are at the coalface of wildlife conservation and with the support and guidance of knowledgeable advisors they should be able to put high quality wildflower meadows back into the British countryside,"

said Matt Shardlow.

Buglife has also produced a new series of Species Management Sheets for farmers and other landowners in collaboration with Defra. They cover a range of rare and threatened species including the Necklace ground beetle (Carabus monilis), Large garden bumblebee (Bombus ruderatus) and Heath tiger beetle (Cicindela sylvatica).

The leaflets include information on habitats, causes of decline and guidance on Environmental Stewardship scheme options.

Farmers wishing to apply for High Level Stewardship or who have land management queries should call Natural England on 0300 060 0011 or visit www.naturalengland.co.uk. Farmers and smallholders taking advantage of the scheme are also offered expert support from Natural England.