BEES DO THE heavy lifting when it comes to pollination.

But Ireland’s solitary bees won’t buzz more than 200 metres to find food. That’s why a new national plan aims to bring nature to the bees by making “pockets” of natural habitat ubiquitous across the island of Ireland.

The third All-Ireland Pollinator Plan, launched yesterday, sets out measures including a new mapping system to support the creation of these new habitats every 200 metres.

Úna Fitzpatrick, chief scientific officer at the National Biodiversity Data Centre, said it would bring ”landscape-level change”.

Ireland’s wild bees are in decline, with one third of Ireland’s 100 species of wild bee at risk of extinction.

Pollination is needed to ensure sustainability of food production, support the farming economy and protect the environment, the new plan for the period 2026 to 2030 states.

The new initiative aims to provide regular food and shelter for all of Ireland’s pollinators which also include butterflies, wasps and beetles. The aim is to engage farmers, businesses, public bodies and schools in this work.

Pollination has contributed up to €59 million annually to the value of Irish crops, according to agricultural research agency Teagasc.

The number of pollinators is not increasing

Christopher O’Sullivan, the junior minister responsible for biodiversity, said the trend in the health of Ireland’s pollinator species is going the wrong way, but without the previous 10 years of work under the first two all-island pollinator plans things would be worse.

Fitzpatrick, a co-founder of the plan, said: “It seems to have stabilised. It needs to now move in the right direction.”

“Our goal is to see a positive increase in pollinators themselves, so an increase in bumblebees and solitary bees and hover flies and moths. That is when we know it’s successful,” she said.

She said buy-in from the Irish public to the objective of supporting pollinators remains strong.

“I suppose my fear has always been that people get tired of it, or that they would lose interest, and that hasn’t happened,” she said.

Pollination helps to enhance Ireland's biodiversity. Hannah Power / The Journal Hannah Power / The Journal / The Journal

 Recent record-breaking heat in Ireland has drawn attention to the impact of climate change on our environment. Fitzpatrick said the erratic nature of the weather in a changing climate poses problems for wildlife that mean improved habitats are more important than ever.

”You might have a cold spring, and then it suddenly gets very hot and droughts. It’s that erraticness that can be quite difficult for wildlife, including pollinators,” she said.

“The more habitat we can create for them, the more resilience it gives them, and the more they can then respond to things like change in climate and fluctuating weather.”

This third iteration of the pollinator plan has been allocated extra funding, which Fitzpatrick said will support the work about to be undertaken.

”We want to make more progress, but with this extra funding for the third phase, we’ve got a much bigger team, so we can increase, and this plan has a widely ambitious vision,” she said.