The total of native bee types in the European continent facing extinction has over doubled over the past decade, while the count of threatened butterfly species has almost doubled.
This critical situation for crucial pollinating species was unveiled by scientific studies for the IUCN red list, which established that at least one hundred seventy-two bee varieties out of over 1900 were at risk of extinction in Europe.
The count of butterflies threatened with extinction in European nations has risen from thirty-seven to sixty-five since the earlier research, conducted a decade and a half ago. A single species, the Madeiran large white butterfly (Pieris wollastoni) has now been confirmed extinct.
Apart from their beauty and cultural significance, pollinating insects like bees and butterfly species are crucial elements for our physical condition, our food chains and our economic systems – maintaining the produce, vegetables and seeds that sustain us,” commented Grethel Aguilar. “The latest European red list evaluations reveal significant difficulties, with risks growing for butterfly types and essential non-managed bee species.”
The reasons of the quick recent decreases are the continuing harm or degradation of habitats caused by intensive agriculture and deserted farmland, wetland drainage, overgrazing by livestock, and the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides including neonicotinoids. The fragmentation of pollinator-friendly habitat substantially boosts the risk of local extinctions.
Global warming is also shown to be a primary risk: 52% of all endangered butterfly types in Europe are threatened by the climate crisis – about double the number as a previous decade.
As many as 90% of flowering plants in Europe depend on insect pollination, as stated by the lead coordinator of the wild bee assessment. “Sadly, non-managed bee populations are in sharp decrease and cannot be easily replaced by domesticated hives,” he said. “If non-managed bees die out, many non-cultivated plants might be at risk too – of which flower-rich meadows and lovely orchid types are just a couple of instances.”
15 varieties of bumblebees, which play a crucial role in pollinating peas, beans, peanuts and clover, and 14 types of cellophane bees, recognized for fertilizing trees such as willows along with red maples, are now categorized as at-risk. Simpanurgus phyllopodus, a mining bee unique to the continent and the single type of this genus in the European continent, is now assessed as severely threatened – the scientific category closest to extinction in the wild.
Butterfly species that are only found on high-altitude areas are especially at risk to global warming as they need to move uphill as their living spaces become hotter but eventually exhaust available space. In Spain’s southern region, the grayling of Nevada and the Andalusian anomalous blue are among more than 40% of types unique to Europe (only found in Europe) at risk of extinction.
In the Mediterranean area, types such as the highly at-risk Karpathos grayling butterfly are endangered by intense dry conditions and fires.
At the same time, in the Arctic Circle, global heating is causing the timberline to shift northward by dozens of meters each year, with underbrush invading wetlands and tundra. Warmer conditions also mean caribou can no more cross the ice to browse Arctic meadows and keep them open. Eight butterfly species are threatened with extinction in this region, including Freyja’s fritillary and the ringlet of the Arctic.
“The biggest living space for all these pollinating insects is flower-rich grassland and that is vanishing rapidly across the European continent because of all these elements,” said one of the lead coordinators of the butterflies assessment. “The good news is that so many citizens are concerned now and there’s a lot more understanding. Under the EU’s nature restoration regulation, all member countries have to halt the decrease in pollinators by twenty-thirty, and they are going to have to start doing something. There are land holders who are involved. We hope they can obtain the motivations that will assist them on their way.”
As per Martin Warren, there is “readily achievable actions” in terms of action for pollinating species which will not decrease food production – and could improve it – such as growers establishing bloom-filled edges around their cultivated areas.
the EU’s environment commissioner, portrayed the protection status of non-managed bees, butterfly species and other pollinating insects as “severe”.
“Prompt and unified steps is needed to tackle this risk. In collaboration with participating nations, the European Commission has established an Europe-wide tracking system for pollinating insects based on the EU nature restoration regulation, which will help to track our development. Now, we need to focus on execution and cooperation with member countries to preserve our pollinating insects,” she said.
The publication of the evaluations of bees along with butterflies is subsequent to the pioneering European-wide evaluation of hoverflies, a further crucial group of pollinators. Issued in 2022, it disclosed that thirty-seven percent of all hoverfly types in the European continent were facing extinction.
