News
Focusing on the root causes of pollinator decline
Published: 20 May 2025
Europe’s bees, hoverflies and butterflies are under threat – not only from pesticides and habitat loss, but also from deeper, systemic issues such as reluctance to change, silo-thinking and limited translation of positions favourable to multiple pollinators into policy. These indirect drivers of pollinator loss have so far received little attention.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) have published a policy brief addressing these indirect drivers at EU policy level.While EU efforts have largely focused on direct threats, researchers argue that meaningful change requires tackling the underlying causes as well.
As part of the Horizon 2020-funded Safeguard project, IUCN, with the help of SLU researchers, organised a workshop with EU stakeholders from various policy sectors to identify barriers to mainstreaming pollinator-friendly practices at EU level. SLU researchers also conducted interviews with key actors involved in the EU pollinator policy agenda.
“It was a challenge to gain access to busy EU-level actors and to break through institutional silos – something we experienced ourselves during the project. At the same time, it was incredibly rewarding to meet and listen to people with such diverse perspectives,” says Florence Damiens, researcher SLU’s Department of Ecology, who led the study.
The research identified six major positions on pollinators competing to influence EU policy. These positions reflect different views on human–nature relationships and on the scale of institutional and policy change required to support pollinators – ranging from status quo to deep transformation.
“Each position promotes different policy solutions, empowers different actors and prioritises different land use practices and pollinator species. Some positions can be reconciled through negotiation, while others are fundamentally at odds,” explains René van der Wal, professor in Ecology at the same department, who also participated in the study.
Some positions still centre on managed pollinators (such as honeybees and reared bumblebees) and struggle to acknowledge the major roles also played by wild pollinators. Others centre on rare, specialist pollinators with little recognition of roles played by humans. In between, several positions pay attention to both managed and wild pollinator species, motivated by food security, health and wellbeing, care for the land or for biodiversity.
“Importantly, not all positions are equally represented once we move into policy spaces. We find that those favourable to multiple pollinators still struggle to be translated into policy across key EU policy sectors,” adds Florence Damiens.
During the workshop, panellists highlighted several key barriers to pollinator-friendly practices at EU level: resistance to change, lack of ecological knowledge, governance challenges, short-termism, silo- thinking, lack of affordable alternatives to pesticides and insufficient monitoring. Yet, positions grounded in a relational care for nature were also little represented during discussions, limiting the scope of proposed solutions.
So how can these challenges be addressed?
“Solutions lie in cross-sectoral collaboration, fostering dialogue and stakeholder engagement while recognising and addressing power imbalances and combining ecological science with socio-political knowledge in decision-making. It’s not easy, but by highlighting these issues, we hope to support a shift towards tackling the indirect threats to pollinators”, says Florence Damiens.
Policy Brief
Towards pollinator-friendly policy and practices: Worldviews, opportunities and barriers
Contact
Florence Damiens, florence.damiens@slu.se
René van der Wal, rene.van.der.wal@slu.se
The EU’s Work on Pollinators
Since 2018, the EU has developed a common agenda to address pollinator decline, including the EU Pollinators Initiative. The European Court of Auditors found that the initiative had limited impact, which prompted its revision in 2023.
Measures have been introduced across several policy areas, though early efforts mainly targeted direct threats such as habitat loss and chemical use, thus without tackling institutional constraints that perpetuate damaging practices.
Overall, policy development remains uneven. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)’s updated bee guidance from 2023 has yet to be endorsed by Member States, and ambitions to reduce pesticide use have stalled. In contrast, new instruments – such as the Nature Restoration Law and strategic Common Agricultural Policy plans – can offer fresh opportunities for action if EU Member States decide to seize them.
Projects like Safeguard keep contributing by exploring both direct and indirect drivers of pollinator loss and identifying effective responses.