All-Ireland Pollinator Plan 2021-2025

Creating an island where pollinators can survive and thrive

Irish pollinators are in decline. The problem is serious, and in order to ensure the sustainability of our food production; to avoid additional economic impact on the agricultural sector; and to protect the health of the environment, it requires immediate attention.

The All-Ireland Pollinator Plan is a shared plan of action. By working together, we can collectively take steps to help restore pollinator populations to healthy levels. Over the next five years, this plan will work to bring about a landscape where pollinators can flourish.

The loss of natural and semi-natural habitats has been a key driver in pollinator declines. At its core, the Pollinator Plan is about providing food and shelter across all types of land so that our pollinators can survive and thrive. It creates a framework to bring together pollinator initiatives across the island, so that through coordination and cooperation, we can achieve our goal.

Red-tailed Bumblebee, Bombus lapidarius © Steven Falk

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OBJECTIVES

The Pollinator Plan has six objectives:

1Making farmland pollinator friendly By working together with the farming community, we want to achieve an increased awareness of pollinators and the resources they need in order to survive on farmland.

2Making public land pollinator friendly By working together with Councils, Transport Authorities, Local Communities and others, we want to better coexist with biodiversity and help return food and shelter for pollinators to our island.

3Making private land pollinator friendly From gardens, to businesses, faith communities and sports clubs, we want to work together to create networks of biodiversity-friendly habitat across our landscape.

4All-Ireland Honeybee Strategy By supporting beekeepers, we want to achieve healthy, sustainable populations, and for honeybees to be part of a cohesive pollinator message that balances managed and wild pollinator populations.

5Conserving rare pollinators By improving our knowledge on rare pollinators, and by raising awareness through dedicated initiatives, we want to achieve a Plan that protects as much wild pollinator diversity as possible.

6Strategic coordination of the Plan By continually raising awareness; addressing gaps in our knowledge through research; and by tracking where pollinators occur and how populations are changing, we want to work from an evidence base that enables us to coordinate a dynamic plan that is targeted and effective.