Researchers from the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) and Safeguard, Laure-Lou Tremblay and Evelyn Underwood, have recently developed comprehensive guidance for cities to monitor pollinators in urban areas.
The report addresses the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030 and the EU Pollinators Initiative’s calls for cities and urban regions to produce urban greening plans focused on pollinator conservation and/or monitoring strategies. The publication also highlights the EU Nature Restoration Law and the legal obligation of Member States to put in place measures to reverse the decline of pollinator populations and pollinator diversity by 2030.
This guidance aims to bring tools and knowledge for cities to use pollinators as indicators of their urban greening and carry out pollinator monitoring. It builds on the EU Commission guidance for pollinator-friendly cities and explores options for pollinator monitoring in more depth. The publication provides a gateway for cities to access resources on the topic, as well as background on the different monitoring options available. It gives good practice examples from successful monitoring schemes in the EU.
In this report you will find:
- An assessment of the practical (and potentially unexpected) benefits of pollinator monitoring for a city;
- A review of technical options available for cities and advice on how to navigate them;
- Recommendations for designing monitoring schemes, encompassing both practical and theoretical aspects;
- A diversity of examples from different cities across the EU: from a citizen science project in Berlin to green space management staff training in Besançon to a wild bee city atlas in Brussels;
- Challenges cities may encounter and how to overcome them.
Photo: The first two pages of the IEEP’s ‘Guidelines for pollinators in urban habitats’, 2023