Some 73% of the actions outlined the current All-Ireland Pollinator Plan to make farmland pollinator friendly have been completed.
That is according to a review of progress made during the fourth year of the five-year plan.
Of the overall 186 actions contained in the plan, 94% have been completed or are in train.
125 have been completed this year as agreed (67%), 50 are in train (27%) and 11 have not yet been progressed (6%).
The steering group said that some actions are discrete (once-off) while many are annually rolling actions.
It noted that many of those actions not yet progressed have a research component and may be funding dependent.
Pollinator plan
One third of the wild bee species on the island of Ireland are threatened with extinction.
In publishing the first All-Ireland Pollinator Plan (AIPP) in 2015, Ireland became one of the first countries in Europe to address pollinator declines. All 81 actions contained in that initial plan were delivered.
The plan, which has a 15-member all-island steering group, is managed by the National Biodiversity Data Centre, who oversee its implementation.
The second phase of the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan for 2021-2025 launched at the end of March 2021 containing 186 actions to help biodiversity.
All 42 councils across the island have now formally partnered with the plan and have committed to taking actions on the public lands they manage.
While 338 businesses have committed to taking evidence-based actions for pollinators and reporting on their activities.
Among the six overarching objectives laid out in the plan, the first is making farmland pollinator friendly, which contains some 26 actions.
The review shows that 73% of the actions have been completed, 15% are in train and 12% have not yet progressed.
Among the actions not progressed to date is tracking progress within the farmland sector using an online mapping system.
The review notes that considerations are still being given on how best to open up the mapping system to farmers and how to integrate with the findings of the ‘Protecting Farmland Pollinators’ European Innovation Partnership (EIP).
A scoring tool was developed within the EIP project which enables farmers to generate a score indicating how pollinator friendly their farm is.
The review states that a web-based application of the tool is currently being tested.
Farmland
The steering group said that “good progress continues to be made with the farming sector” in relation to the plan.
“In this second phase, we have been able to engage much more widely with farming stakeholders,” they said.
An online training module on pollinator-friendly farming, aimed at farmers, farm advisors and agricultural students was launched earlier this year.
Following the completion of a five-year research project, an evidence-based whole farm scoring system has been developed, that allows farmers to assess how pollinator friendly their farm is, and what simple actions could be taken to improve their score.
As part of the National Pollinator Monitoring Scheme, some 40 sites were again monitored this year, including farmland, semi-natural sites, and urban parks.
The aim is to annually monitor a fixed network of 50 sites. 15 sites were also monitored in Northern Ireland in 2024, as part of the UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme.
When these schemes are combined with existing citizen science initiatives, they will allow the impact of the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan to be fully assessed into the future.
The review noted that these findings will also be vital in tracking implementation of pollinator targets within the EU Nature Restoration Law (NRL) in the Republic of Ireland.
The steering group said that the timing of the NRL “works well” as the third edition of the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan for 2026 onwards is due to be developed next year.