It may hard to imagine that 100 crops provide 90% of the world’s food and 71 of these crops are pollinated by bees. Bees and other insects like moths, hoverflies, butterflies are all pollinators. In Ireland we’ve over 100 wild bees, including 1 species of honey bee, 21 bumble bee species and 80 different types of solitary bees. One third of all bee species is in risk of extinction and since 2012, monitoring has indicated a bee abundance decline of 3% annually in Ireland. Pollinators are an important element of our natural world, not only for our crops but 78% of all our wild plants benefit from insect pollination and in turn helps the establishment of more wild plants, provides more wild fruit and seed which in turn supports birds and animals. It’s easy to support our pollinators by providing them with food, shelter and safety but Kilkenny County Council is encouraging the public to go the extra mile and engage in national monitoring schemes to collect data to build up a picture of local trends for different species.
Kilkenny County Council’s Heritage Office is running a Citizen Science “Bats, Bugs and Bee’s” programme this year, thanks to Local Biodiversity Action Fund provided by the National Parks and Wildlife Service. This funding along with the support of the Heritage Council has enabled Kilkenny County Council to run a series of events throughout the spring and summer to support training opportunities and workshops to shine a light on different species. The first training opportunity is in collaboration with the National Biodiversity Data Centre, on Saturday, the 13th of April, with Dr Úna FitzPatrick who will run a Bumblebee identification workshop in Kilkenny City. During the workshop you will learn about Ireland’s bumblebees, how to identify the different species, and how to take part in the All-Ireland Bumblebee Monitoring Scheme.
Kilkenny County Council’s Biodiversity Officer, Bernadette Moloney commented “I will be delighted to welcome Dr. Úna FitzPatrick to Kilkenny City, the training is only one piece of a larger programme which the National Biodiversity Data Centre provides, their website www.pollinators.ie provides brilliant information relating to how best to support our pollinators. Everyone can lend a hand, plant up gardens with pollinator friendly plants, farmers can manage their hedgerows for biodiversity and the County Council also has a role to play. Kilkenny County Council was one of the first Councils to sign up to the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan and implement measures across their operations to protect pollinators. The appointment of a dedicated Biodiversity Officer can now better co-ordinate actions for pollinators both through Council operations and support communities like the crocus planting at the Kilkenny Great War Memorial in the Peace Park, spear headed by Donal Croghan, of the Kilkenny Great War Memorial Committee who with the assistance of Michael Street Residents and Keep Kilkenny Beautiful. This is an exemplar community project to support early emerging pollinators and it is hoped this project can be replicated elsewhere around the city next year. Encouraging people to participate in the national bumblebee monitoring scheme locally will help to build up trends locally, to book your place at the bumble bee identification workshop on the 13th of April, email biodiversity@kilkennycoco.ie or contact the Heritage Office at 056-7794487.
