Select a region
People from across the Channel Islands are being encouraged to upload their favourite ‘pollinator-friendly’ spots to a new online map as part of a bid to support natural wildlife.
The Channel Island Pollinator Project has launched its first ‘pollinator map', hoping that by working together across the islands, they will be able to reverse the decrease in insect pollinators and preserve their habitats for future generations.
From a small patch of flowering plants to a field full of wildflowers, the Pollinator Project is inviting people to upload their favourite pollinator friendly areas for everyone to see.
They have teamed up with organisations such as The National Trust for Jersey and the Royal Jersey Agricultural and Horticultural Society to bring their biggest project yet to everyone in the Channel Islands.
Pictured: The Pollinator Project encourages islanders to upload photos of their favourite pollinator-friendly areas
Nina Cornish, Research Ecologist, Government of Jersey said: “We want all Island residents to Bee Friendly and set aside at least 10% of your garden or land for pollinators. We depend on pollinators for much of our food, so supporting them with more wild spaces in both our rural and urban areas will help halt their decline.”
Setup by Société Guernesiaise, the Pollinator Project first began in 2017 in Guernsey as a way to promote biodiversity throughout the island and took off from there. After drawing the eye of the 2018 Inter-Island Environment Meeting (IIEM) it was decided that it should become a Channel Island project.
In recent years, the number of insect pollinators has rapidly decreased due to the loss of habitats, chemical misuse and disease, amongst other causes.
Pictured: Les Landes school are among one of the first to upload a picture of their pollinator-friendly area.
This has a knock-on effect, as three quarters of all crops grown by humans worldwide rely on animal (predominantly insect) pollination to survive. In the UK alone, insect pollination is responsible for the life of £690m worth of crops each year.
However, the Channel Islands Pollinator Project has aimed to combat the pollinator decline by setting up initiatives like 'Insect A&E' in Jersey, and Guernsey’s lockdown ‘Create A Butterfly’ competition to raise awareness of the loss of insect pollinators and the risks this poses to global biodiversity.
The Pollinator Project also encourages islanders to follow these six steps in order to save the lives of pollinators at home:
Comments
Comments on this story express the views of the commentator only, not Bailiwick Publishing. We are unable to guarantee the accuracy of any of those comments.