Pollinators Are Not Optional, they Are a Core Public Responsibility

Why BeeLife Members Are Calling for a New Approach to Land Management

The crisis facing insect pollinators is no longer only an environmental issue. Today, it directly affects the economy, food security and the stability of Europe’s rural areas. Across the European Union, wild bees and honey bees are struggling to find sufficient habitat and resources, while their role in agriculture remains essential.

At the end of 2025, our member Imkerverband Rheinland-Pfalz clearly highlighted in its statements and publications that biodiversity loss is not a marginal phenomenon, expressing a position that BeeLife now amplifies as one shared by all its members. Intensive agriculture, soil artificialisation, the heavy use of pesticides and fertilisers, and the conversion of meadows, pastures, hedgerows and wetlands into uniform agricultural surfaces have drastically reduced living space for insects. This process, known as habitat loss, deprives pollinators of both food sources and breeding areas.

As Thomas Hock, President of Imkerverband Rheinland-Pfalz, emphasises: “For pollinators, the challenge is not just survival, but finding landscapes that still allow them to fulfil their role. Without space, flowers and diversity, even the honey bee cannot compensate for what the agricultural system takes away from it.”

An Ecosystem Service Worth Billions

Recent estimates clearly show what is at stake: in Europe, a collapse of pollination services would result in economic damage amounting to tens of billions of euros. Many crops depend directly on insects for fruit and seed production. When wild pollinators decline, the pressure shifts to the honey bee. Yet colonies cannot become a technical fix for a structural problem. In a context dominated by pesticides, monocultures and climate stress, even managed honey bees see their capacity to adapt increasingly limited.

Thomas Hock summarises it this way:  “Our colonies risk becoming a spare wheel for a system that simultaneously destroys their life-supporting foundations. We cannot ask bees to repair the damage caused by the agricultural model.”

Fewer pollinators mean greater uncertainty for harvests, price volatility and vulnerability of food supply chains. The ecological crisis thus turns into a production and economic crisis.

Pollinators Under Pressure: The Role of Pesticides

Scientific research shows that pesticides not only cause immediate lethal effects, much more widespread are sublethal effects that alter insect behaviour. 

At realistic environmental concentrations, reductions are observed in foraging, nectar processing and brood care. From the outside, a colony may appear healthy, while internally its vital functions are compromised.

Particularly problematic are mixtures of insecticides, herbicides and fungicides. These “cocktails” generate complex effects that often remain invisible when substances are assessed individually in authorisation procedures.

“The issue is not only what we spray” - as Thomas underlines - “but how and how often. Chronic low doses and product combinations weaken colonies invisibly until the system can no longer cope.”

For BeeLife, the way forward must be built on the rigorous evaluation of evidence, scientific literature and independent research, so that policies and practices can give concrete form to agricultural systems with a lower environmental footprint and real long-term viability.

Without Pollinators, There Is No Economy

The biodiversity crisis has now entered financial risk models. Studies by reinsurers, development banks and European institutions show that a significant share of economic output depends on functioning ecosystems: fertile soils, clean water, climate stability and pollinators.

When these elements degrade, they become concrete risks for credit markets, investments and insurance. Unstable yields, extreme weather events and the loss of ecosystem services translate directly into economic losses.

The financial sector is beginning to integrate biodiversity into risk assessment - not for ideological reasons, but to protect investments and long-term stability.

New Responsibilities for Policy, Industry and Finance

Biodiversity protection should not be seen as a cost, but as a condition for the economic and social stability of territories. With instruments such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and the European Sustainability Reporting Standards - E4 standard, the European Union requires companies to be transparent about their impacts on nature and their dependence on ecosystems. At a different but complementary level, the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures initiative supports banks and investors in identifying and managing nature-related risks.

This leads to a gradual shift in financing criteria: activities that degrade agricultural landscapes become riskier, while production models that protect soils, insects and habitats appear more resilient and attractive.

Land Management: From Emergency to Strategy

For BeeLife, protecting pollinators is not about planting a few flowers. It means rethinking land management: more hedgerows, field margins, permanent grassland and crop rotations, and less dependence on chemical inputs. BeeLife has already defended this position during the previous CAP negotiation (REF) and will do so again in the next one, whose negotiations have already begun. 

The European framework, including the Nature Restoration Law and pollinator monitoring systems, moves precisely in this direction by linking measures, data and verifiable results.

Protecting insect pollinators is a shared responsibility. Policymakers, industry and society must treat biodiversity as an essential resource, just like energy, water or transport.

BeeLife and its members therefore send a clear message: investing in pollinators means investing in food security, economic stability and the quality of Europe’s landscapes.

“Reducing chemical pressure, rebuilding habitats, diversifying agricultural landscapes and integrating nature into economic decision-making are no longer optional,” - states Anna Ganapini, President of BeeLife - “European citizens have made this clear as well, through initiatives such as Save Bees and Farmers and, in France, the signature campaigns against the Duplomb law, which prompted the French Constitutional Council to strike down the reintroduction of a banned pesticide.”

This article was written with the kind contribution of BeeLife member Imkerverband Rheinland-Pfalz e.V