Europe risks a severe crisis if the decline of wild pollinators continues. This is the key message of a new white paper prepared by 135 researchers from eight EU-funded research consortia, including the projects BUTTERFLY, RestPoll, ProPollSoil and PolinERA, all involving researchers from Aarhus University. Among the authors are Claus Rasmussen, Martin Hvarregaard Thorsøe, James Williams, Johan Axelman and Chris Topping from the Department of Agroecology.
The report highlights that both food security and essential societal functions are at risk if the trend is not reversed. Pollinators such as bees, butterflies and hoverflies play a crucial role in food production, but also contribute to a wide range of other sectors, from medicine and textiles to tourism and cultural heritage.
According to the report, one of the biggest obstacles to protecting pollinators is the fragmented nature of EU policymaking. Responsibility is spread across agriculture, environment, chemicals regulation, trade and finance, and the lack of coordination makes it difficult to achieve a coherent response.
The researchers therefore call for pollinator protection to become a clear and measurable priority across all relevant policy areas.
The report also points to more fundamental issues in the way society understands and manages nature.
According to the researchers, pollinator decline is linked to the cumulative impacts of human activities across sectors on ecosystems over time. This underlines the need for stronger alignment between practices on the ground and the latest scientific knowledge on how to support resilient ecosystems.
Even well-intentioned initiatives may have limited impact if they are not sufficiently evidence-based.
“Many farmers establish flower strips, but few are aware that some moth species are actually more effective pollinators than honey bees,” says the report’s lead author, Professor Jeroen van der Sluijs.
He points out that many pollinators depend on host plants for their larvae, not just flowers for adult feeding. These host plants are often absent from the seed mixtures currently in use.
The report also emphasises that the stakeholders who have the greatest influence on pollinator habitats often lack the necessary knowledge. The researchers therefore recommend integrating education on ecosystems and pollinators across a broad range of disciplines and educational programmes.
As a solution, the researchers present a roadmap containing 15 concrete recommendations based on the latest scientific evidence. These range from policy coordination and regulation to changes in agricultural practices and education.
Towards pollinator stewardship in all policies: Policy incoherence in the EU is a major barrier to pollinator restoration
16-Jun-2026