The total of non-managed bee varieties in Europe experiencing extinction has more than doubled over the past decade, and the total of threatened butterfly has close to doubled.
This pressing issue for essential pollinators was disclosed by research studies for the red list of threatened species, which found that at least one hundred seventy-two bee varieties out of 1,928 were facing extinction in Europe.
The total of butterfly types at risk of extinction in European nations has grown from 37 to sixty-five since the previous assessment, performed a decade and a half ago. One species, the Madeiran large white butterfly (Pieris wollastoni) has now been classified as extinct.
Apart from their visual charm and cultural importance, pollinators like bees along with butterflies are lifelines for our physical condition, our food chains and our financial structures – maintaining the fruits, vegetables and seeds that sustain us,” said the IUCN’s director general. “The newest European red list assessments reveal major obstacles, with threats increasing for butterflies and essential wild bee varieties.”
The reasons of the swift recent drops are the ongoing destruction or damage of habitats caused by intensive agriculture and land abandonment, wetland drainage, livestock overgrazing, and the use of pesticides and fertilisers including neonicotinoid pesticides. The fragmentation of environments suitable for pollinators significantly raises the threat of extinctions at local level.
Global heating is also shown to be a primary risk: Fifty-two percent of all endangered butterflies in the European continent are endangered by the climate emergency – approximately twice as many as a ten years ago.
Up to 90% of blooming plants in the European continent depend on animal pollination, as stated by the wild bee assessment’s lead coordinator. “Unfortunately, wild bee populations are in sharp decrease and cannot be easily replaced by managed colonies,” he said. “If native bees die out, many non-cultivated plants might be in danger as well – of which flower-rich meadows and lovely orchid types are just a handful of illustrations.”
Fifteen species of bumblebee species, which have an essential part in pollinating peas, beans, peanuts and clover, and fourteen varieties of cellophane bee species, known for pollinating trees such as willows and red maples, are now categorized as at-risk. Simpanurgus phyllopodus, a mining bee species unique to the mainland and the only species of this genus in Europe, is now evaluated as critically endangered – the scientific classification closest to disappearance in the wild.
Butterflies that are only found on high-altitude areas are highly susceptible to climate change as they need to move uphill as their environments become hotter but eventually have no room left. In southern Spain, the Nevada grayling butterfly and the Andalusian anomalous blue are among over forty percent of species endemic to Europe (only found in Europe) threatened with extinction.
In the Mediterranean area, types such as the severely threatened Karpathos grayling butterfly are threatened by intense drought and wildfires.
Meanwhile, in the Arctic Circle, global warming is leading to the forest boundary to shift northward by many meters each year, with scrub invading marsh and tundra. Warmer conditions also mean caribou can no longer cross the frozen water to browse northern grasslands and keep them open. 8 butterfly varieties are at risk of extinction in this region, including the fritillary of Freyja and the ringlet of the Arctic.
“The biggest environment for all these pollinating insects is flower-rich grassland and that is declining quickly in European nations because of all these reasons,” said Martin Warren. “The positive thing is that so many citizens care now and there’s a lot more consciousness. Under the EU nature restoration legislation, all participating nations have to halt the decline in pollinating species by twenty-thirty, and they are going to have to start doing something. There are landowners who are involved. We hope they can obtain the incentives that will support them on their way.”
According to Warren, there is “readily achievable actions” in terms of measures for pollinating species which will not decrease agricultural output – and might boost it – such as growers creating flower-rich margins around their fields.
the EU’s environment commissioner, portrayed the preservation condition of wild bees, butterflies and other pollinators as “dire”.
“Urgent and collective action is required to confront this threat. In collaboration with member countries, the European Commission has put in place an EU-wide observation system for pollinating species based on the EU nature restoration regulation, which will assist in monitoring our advancement. Now, we need to focus on implementation and collaboration with member countries to preserve our pollinators,” she said.
The publication of the evaluations of bees along with butterflies comes after the first European-wide assessment of hoverflies, a further essential pollinator group. Released in 2022, it disclosed that over one-third of all hoverfly varieties in European nations were facing extinction.
