13 / LANDSCAPE
“WILDFLOWER” OR “WILDFOULER”,
HOW THE INDUSTRY CAN SUPPORT THE BEES AND BIODIVERSITY Noeleen Smyth, National Botanic Gardens in conjunction with Maria Long, Grassland Ecologist National Parks & Wildlife Service; Jane Stout, Professor of Botany, Trinity College Dublin & All Ireland Pollinator Plan & Una Fitzpatrick, All Ireland Pollinator Plan & National Biodiversity Data Centre BIODIVERSITY IN TROUBLE The most recent global assessment on biodiversity in 2019 highlighted that the rate of decline in nature during the past 50 years is unprecedented. Biodiversity or biological diversity, is defined as the diversity of all living things, and it is under severe threat. The number of plants, insects, animals and birds that are threatened or in danger of extinction grows every year. In Ireland, our President Michael D. Higgins highlighted to the first National Biodiversity Conference in 2019 that, “if we were miners, we would be up to our necks in dead canaries”. Our health and well-being are reliant on nature and its services, which we receive in the form of air, food, water, medicines, as well as landscapes for recreation, and protection against natural hazards. Our very existence depends on this natural capital provided for us from the natural world - our natural assets, which include geology, soil, air, water and all our biodiversity (World Forum on Natural Capital 2020), but we have not invested sufficiently in them. The global biodiversity assessment report of 2019 listed the top five drivers of the negative change in biodiversity: land and sea use change; direct exploitation of organisms; climate change; pollution; and invasion of alien species. Ireland responded to this and declared a Climate and Biodiversity Emergency in 2019. The plight of our native species is forlorn, with one in five species estimated to be at risk of extinction. Extinction risk is higher in some groups, including our pollinators, with 33% of all Irish bees and 18% of Irish butterflies currently at risk of extinction. This could have direct impacts on humanity, 75% of the world’s human food crops are animal pollinated, a service that is worth millions to the Irish economy each year ( Bullock et al. 2008 The Economic and Social Aspects of Biodiversity – Benefits and Costs of Biodiversity in Ireland) One of the most successful national biodiversity programmes to date is helping to raise awareness and promote positive action to reverse pollinator decline. This programme is known as the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan (https://pollinators.ie/). The aim of this plan is to engage farmers, local authorities, schools, gardeners and businesses to come together to create and support an Ireland where pollinators can survive and thrive. The public and consumers have heard this message loud and clear, everyone wants to ‘do their bit for
the bees’ so that the demand for “Wildflowers” to support the bees has increased dramatically and the demand for products has resulted in lifestyle stores, which didn’t stock seeds or plants in the past, now
Top ten “Wildflowers” whose presence in seed packets can indicate that the mix does not contain any native Irish seed
1 COMMON NAME Cornlcockle LATIN NAME Agrostemma githago INFORMATION A European species, once a weed of wheat fields. Not a native Irish species.
Spring 2021 / www.horticultureconnected.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED
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