![\"Allowing](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0024ab30-614.jpg\"\/)
\nAllowing wildflowers and hedges to grow is one of the actions suggested in the plan<\/p>\n
An ambitious new five-year strategy to reverse the decline of Ireland’s pollinating insects and create a landscape where bees and other pollinators can find food and shelter every 200 metres has been launched at the National Botanic Gardens in Dublin.<\/p>\n
The third phase of the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan is a voluntary initiative, coordinated by the National Biodiversity Data Centre. It brings together farmers, local communities, businesses, and public bodies in a coordinated effort to restore habitats for pollinating insects.<\/p>\n
The target of providing habitat every 200 metres reflects the limited distance travelled by many of Ireland\u2019s solitary bee species, which can only forage relatively short distances from their nests.<\/p>\n
Pollinators play a critical role in maintaining healthy ecosystems and food production by enabling plants to reproduce. However, Ireland\u2019s 100 species of wild bee continue to face significant pressure, with around one-third now considered at risk of extinction.<\/p>\n
Dr \u00dana FitzPatrick, Chief Science Officer at the National Biodiversity Data Centre, who is one of the key drivers behind the plan said the aim is to get everyone involved.<\/p>\n
“Anyone who has any responsibility for a piece of land can get involved and take action to help. But in this new plan, we identified 10 different work packages from farmers to local authorities, to transport authorities, to communities, to people in their gardens. So, we are encouraging everyone to visit pollinators.ie. to learn how to help.<\/p>\n
“It is completely voluntary and it is just simple actions that pollinators need. They need us not to tidy up so much. They need us not to cut grass so often, to let wildflowers grow. They need us to plant native trees, or to let hedges bloom, or consider not spraying with chemicals. So, there are lots of simple actions that we can all take, and we will all make the difference,” she said.<\/p>\n
The new strategy contains 50 strategic objectives and 75 measures of success, with annual progress reports planned to monitor implementation over the next five years.<\/p>\n
\nAllowing wildflowers and hedges to grow is one of the actions suggested in the plan<\/p>\n
Since it was first launched in 2015, the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan has become an internationally recognised model for pollinator conservation, with similar programmes subsequently developed in other European countries.<\/p>\n
According to the National Biodiversity Data Centre, the previous phases of the plan delivered all planned actions, engaged more than 120 partner organisations, involved every local authority on the island, and recorded more than 14,000 pollinator-friendly actions through its public mapping system.<\/p>\n
Despite that progress, organisers say much more work is needed to halt and reverse pollinator decline.<\/p>\n
The new strategy focuses on ten key sectors, including farmland, public land, transport corridors, businesses, and local communities, with the aim of connecting thousands of individual actions into a larger network of habitats that will allow pollinator populations to recover across the island.<\/p>\n
The new All-Ireland Pollinator Plan 2026-2030 was launched at the National Botanic Gardens in Dublin by Ireland\u2019s Minister for Nature, Heritage and Biodiversity, Christopher O\u2019Sullivan, and the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland, Andrew Muir.<\/p>\n
Minister O\u2019Sullivan said bees, hoverflies and other pollinating insects were vital to both food production and the wider natural environment.<\/p>\n
He said the strength of the programme was that it allowed everyone to contribute, regardless of where they lived or their level of knowledge about biodiversity.<\/p>\n
The network supporting the plan now includes all 42 local authorities on the island, more than 120 organisations and over 400 businesses.<\/p>\n
Mr O’Sullivan added that continued Government funding would allow the programme to expand further and contribute to Ireland\u2019s commitments under the EU Nature Restoration Regulation.<\/p>\n
Northern Ireland Minister Andrew Muir said pollinators were “the unsung heroes” of the natural environment and that restoring their populations would help create landscapes that are richer in biodiversity, more resilient to climate change and better for both wildlife and people.<\/p>\n
The new phase of the plan will receive financial support from the Government\u2019s Shared Island Fund, the National Parks and Wildlife Service, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An ambitious new five-year strategy to reverse the decline of Ireland’s pollinating insects and create a landscape where…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541116,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-541115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}