'Stronger, more ambitious' All-Ireland Pollinator Plan unveiled

The All-Ireland Pollinator Plan 2021-2025 has been launched today (March 26) by Green Party Ministers Malcolm Noonan and Pippa Hackett.

Billed as a “stronger, more ambitious roadmap”, the plan aims to help biodiversity by engaging communities, local authorities, farmers, schools and businesses to take action for nature.

A number of actions are outlined in the Pollinator Plan, the ministers say.

These include: encouraging the restoration of land for pollinators and other biodiversity; increasing the focus on rare species that are at risk of disappearing, like the Great Yellow Bumblebee; and encouraging more people to pledge their garden for pollinators, creating pitstops for hungry bees right across our landscape.

Minister of State for Heritage and Electoral Reform Malcolm Noonan welcomed the launch of the second five-year plan, and encouraged everyone to get involved, saying:

“The first All-Ireland Pollinator Plan transformed the way many people think about nature conservation, communicating the science in a creative way that empowered everyone to get involved and work together to make space for pollinators.

“This new plan is bigger, stronger and more ambitious and I can’t wait to get stuck in and play my part in its implementation. Actions for pollinators also have benefits for our wider biodiversity,” the minister added.

Ireland’s farms are highlighted by the ministers as being key to the Pollinator Plan, which aims to celebrate farmland biodiversity and improve awareness of how farmers can help.

Commenting on the importance of supporting farmers to take action for wild pollinators Senator Pippa Hackett, Minister of State for Forestry, Land Use and Biodiversity said:

“Farmers and farmland do a vital job in managing land for our wild pollinators.

“Their role needs to be both recognised and celebrated, and I believe this new plan will work to do that, by encouraging farmer engagement, and improving awareness and uptake of pollinator actions.

This will then bring about landscape level change for wild pollinators and for wider biodiversity. I am therefore delighted to support the plan.

“My department’s funding of a Farmland Project Officer to support the implementation of the farmland actions is also a welcome addition to it and I look forward to seeing great success for the plan as it moves into the next phase.”