Wales loves bees

Bleddyn Lake

15 August 2012

The Royal Welsh Agricultural Show is the biggest agricultural show in Europe, attracting around 250,000 people every year. Typically the focus is on larger breeds of animal such as cows, sheep and horses but this year, in a small corner of one of the pavilions, the focus was undeniably on bees and other pollinators. John Griffiths, the Welsh Government Environment Minister was surrounded by interested people as he outlined the Welsh Government's (WG) plans to press ahead with a Pollinator Action Plan for Wales.

This was a very welcome announcement and was the result of a series of meetings between Friends of the Earth Cymru and WG officials, exploring what could be done to halt and reverse the decline of pollinators in Wales. Friends of the Earth's The Bee Cause campaign has been calling for exactly such initiatives from the various UK governments and, once again, the WG has been able to steal a march on their Westminster colleagues with this Pollinator Action Plan.

As campaigners we can sometimes get frustrated at the lack of political action on issues we are working on but sometimes, just occasionally, we all seem to be pulling in the same direction. There is something of a zeitgeist about bees at the moment with a variety of bee themed campaigns run by different organisations and documentaries on our televisions highlighting the plight of our small insect workforces.

In the few short months since the launch of our Bee Cause campaign in Wales, schools, businesses, community groups, housing associations and individuals have been buzzing to get involved.

The Welsh Government has now become the first UK administration to take forward a plan to help not only bees but all pollinators in Wales. Devolution has opened up a land of opportunity, not only for progressive politicians seeking to change the way we do things, but also for campaign groups such as Friends of the Earth Cymru who have been able to work with politicians from all parties to take forward positive, alternative solutions to many of the environmental threats we face.

But will David Cameron pay any attention to what is going on this side of Offa's Dyke? How exactly does Westminster view devolution and positive Welsh initiatives? Can Friends of the Earth now use this Welsh Pollinator Action Plan as a 'biodiversity carrot' to coax Cameron into action at a UK level?

As my 4 year old daughter said to me a few days ago 'Why would anyone not want to help bees?'

I think we can all agree with that. After all they help provide us with a lot of the food we eat, they and other pollinators such as hover flies eat many crop pests such as aphids and by going about their normal daily business, save us nearly £2billion a year.

We know what the problems are, we know we can help them and we know what to do. Now Mr Cameron, we just need you to act.

Why?

• Because we need pollinators to help give us some of our favourite foods
• Because pollinators are farmer's friends eating a variety of crop-harmful pests
• Because they save us £1.8billion a year through not having to hand pollinate our crops
• Because it's the right thing to do
• Because children everywhere will think you are a star

And if none of the above reasons are worthwhile then how about the fact that tens of thousands of people all around the UK are already supporting The Bee Cause campaign and thousands more have already supported other bee campaigns.

 We need our elected politicians to provide leadership on this issue. If they don't, I'm sure others will.

The movement is growing. People are demanding change.

After all, why wouldn't you want to help the bees?