EU CAP Network Workshop ‘Promoting pollinator-friendly farming’

The EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030 highlights the importance of pollinators as key indicators of the health of agroecosystems, and stresses their importance for agricultural production and food security. The Strategy sets a policy target to reverse their decline by 2030. This recognition, coupled with the establishment of the EU Pollinators Initiative (2018, revised in 2023), demonstrates their significance from a policy perspective. Additionally, protecting and restoring pollinator populations on farmland are principal goals within the Nature Restoration Law.

Protecting pollinators on farmland requires comprehensive knowledge about pollinator-friendly farming practices, and an understanding of the ecology of all pollinator groups. Facilitating networking across different stakeholder groups (farmers, researchers, advisors, and policymakers), and different Member States provides opportunities to exchange and disseminate knowledge, best practice examples, and innovative ideas in a European context. Such networking events can contribute to meeting farmers’ needs when taking action to halt and reverse pollinator decline.

The EU CAP Network Workshop “Promoting pollinator-friendly farming” was a one-and-a-half-day event designed to create conditions for the exchange of knowledge, and for sharing innovative ideas and inspirational practices relating to pollinator-friendly farming. The workshop was designed as a multi-stakeholder event. Participation was based on an open call, and 69 participants from 21 countries attended the event. Ljubljana was chosen to host the workshop, owing to Slovenia’s suitability to demonstrate practical examples of successful pollinator-friendly farming projects and best practice examples of cooperation between farmers, NGOs, researchers and policymakers.

The plenary session opened with an overview of Europe’s pollinators: status, value, threats, best practices, and current policy. Three inspiring best practice examples were then presented through a panel discussion, followed by 18 poster presentations, showcasing a diversity of projects relating to pollinator-friendly farming practices. Later, field visits focused on best practices for pollinators on farmland in Slovenia.

During the second day, participants concentrated on identifying needs for capacity building, training, cooperation, and education to enable the adoption of pollinator-friendly farming practices. Knowledge gaps and research needs from practice, and ideas for EIP Operational Groups/other innovative projects, were also identified.

Solutions were identified to overcome challenges and to help farmers, at the farm level, implement pollinator-friendly farm management practices. This is key to enhancing the facilitation of knowledge sharing and exchange. Proposed solutions include using farm demonstration sites and peer-to-peer mentoring to highlight best practices for pollinators. The barriers to the uptake of solutions include a lack of financial and advisory support and of policy incentives, along with a lack of local expertise and management guidelines.

Examples of requests for further research include more research on the co-benefits of pollinator-friendly farming practices and on lesser-known pollinators, how to increase flowers in the landscape, and how farmers can be supported in helping to halt pollinator decline. Action is required at the local, regional, national, and European levels. When considering actions for pollinators on farms, clear communication with simple actions that make sense to farmers is essential.