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cross-sector initiative, led by the National Biodiversity Data Centre, with local authorities, farmers, businesses, schools and local communities to support pollinators such as bees. Ireland depends on pollinating insects to pollinate crops, fruits and vegetables. Unfortunately, many of our pollinators are now threatened with extinction.
so much positive action by individuals and local communities around the country, and so many councils have made changes to the way they manage their parks and public lands – to make them more pollinator- friendly. We are thrilled that Kilkenny have become the first Council partner to the plan. Kilkenny has really supported the plan from the very beginning, and the Kilkenny Heritage Office has created some really impressive awareness campaigns, particularly to communicate the plan in local schools and Tidy Towns groups.”
FEATURE The Pollen Crisis be educated and that she has received
Cllr. Eamon Aylward said “We are delighted to be the first Local Authority in the country to sign up to the Pollinator Plan. Last summer the Council adopted the garden bumblebee as our emblem, so this agreement is an obvious next step for us. There’s much better awareness now about the plight of the bees, and the fact that all of us, including County Councils, can do something to help them.”
Weeding out out-dated mentalities is an important aspect of the pollinator plan, Ms Murray, and several other speakers, emphasised: instead of seeing flowering plants, like dandelions, as weeds to be eradicated, the public must see these plants as a vital seasonal food source for bees.
The strength of the Pollinator Plan is its evidence-based guidelines which give clear advice on how each sector can improve their land for pollinators – for instance, by reducing grass mowing; by allowing hedgerows to bloom; by planting pollinator-friendly plants; or by reducing the use of pesticides. By helping our pollinators, the Pollinator Plan also improves the landscape for biodiversity generally across the island.
In fact, it’s more expensive to manage public land for pollinators: Ms Murray said regular maintenance costs €84 per hectare annually, but up to €140 per hectare when land is managed for pollinators, mostly caused by composting costs.
According to Kilkenny Chief Executive Colette Byrne “There isn’t an instant solution to the decline of the bees, but as a Local Authority we can play a small but important role in helping them. We’ll start by looking at the services we provide, such as public parks, road maintenance, and community grants and supports, to see what actions we can take which will help pollinators. This is a long game, but one we’re happy to commit to.”
Trinity College botanist, Dr Jane Stout, has a stark warning for councils about use of pesticides, including neonicotinoids, a group of systemic insecticides that are known bee- killers, and glyphosate, the herbicide shown last year to damage bees’ health and navigation abilities.
In becoming an All-Ireland Pollinator Plan Partner, Local Authorities agree to support the ethos of the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan; to consider the Plan in their policies, plans, and management decisions where possible; to carry out one pollinator-friendly action in the first year of signing up and plan to carry out at least three more within the following five years. Local authority partners will also provide updates on the pollinator actions they have planned, implemented or maintained at the end of each year. With current challenges to the natural world, including Climate Change, the All- Ireland Pollinator Plan offers local authorities a way of conserving the free ecosystem services provided by pollinating insects.
Ms Murray has heard complaints from elderly residents who perceive long grass as untidy: one complainant said they thought that the long grass would encourage drug dealers into the area. “People think we’re not managing sites, because they think we’re trying to save money or reduce our workload,” she said.
complaints that the council is not doing its job.
Many Local Authorities have been taking actions to support pollinators on public land over the past number of years. Many are also working with local community groups, residents’ associations and schools to help raise awareness of the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan. To better support these efforts and to better promote the work being undertaken, this new partnership framework aims to formally recognise Councils as partners of the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan and to give them recognition for their work.
Dr Stout said that while the use of pesticides on agricultural land is measured, we have no way of knowing the quantity of pesticides used on local authority lands, and that the full impact of pesticides on pollinators, which are a “flagship for biodiversity”, is not yet fully understood.
Speaking about this new partnership with Kilkenny County Council, Dr Úna FitzPatrick, All- Ireland Pollinator Plan founder and Project Coordinator, said “This is such an exciting step. We have witnessed
They have also changed their verge-cutting and management of public land. This is to allow to flower plants that are needed as a food source by bees.
“It seems prudent, given that we don’t know the impacts of these pesticides, to seek alternatives and to change perception.”
Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Co Council (DLRCC) has radically overhauled its land management, in response to the pollinator crisis; in 2018, they eliminated chemical use on public lands, apart from invasive species control, and now use hot- water machines for weed control.
Some 77% of Irish honey samples were found to contain traces of pesticides in a recent study, Dr Stout said, proving that insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides are contaminating pollinators’ food chain.
Stark warnings
But DLRCC biodiversity manager, Anne Murray, said the public need to
Reduce, rethink, and replace pesticides with something less- damaging, Dr Stout says.
Farmers may get a bad rap for their use of pesticides, but traditionally managed lawns and green spaces can bear up to 10 times the pesticide burden of agricultural land, according to US biodiversity group The Audubon Society.
“Outside of agricultural settings, we don’t know how much is being used,” she said.
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