CeSAM Seminar Series (18): Nature and pollinator restoration: the problem of policy incoherence in the EU

Recognizing the urgency of pollinator loss, the EU’s Nature Restoration Regulation (NRR) establishes a binding target for Member States to improve pollinator diversity and reverse the decline of pollinator populations by 2030, and thereafter, achieve an increasing trend of pollinator populations, measured at least every six years from 2030. However, long-term restoration efforts with the aim of recovering past biodiversity, requires a concerted effort to tackle a multitude of pressures simultaneously across several sectors and policy domains. Indeed, one of the biggest obstacles is the numerous incoherent policies affecting pollinators that hinder or counteract the achievement of the EU’s policy objectives regarding pollinators;

This is the urgent reason for 8 major EU Horizon research projects on pollinators: Butterfly (external link), VALOR (external link), PollinERA (external link), WildPosh (external link), AGRI4POL (external link), ProPollSoil (external link), RestPoll (external link), and Safeguard (external link), to jointly publish a new White Paper “towards pollinator stewardship in all policies” that synthesises evidence and cross-project expertise to diagnose and address policy incoherence as a major barrier to pollinator protection and restoration.

The complexity of reversing pollinator decline calls for a systemic policy approach in which pollinator stewardship should be central to all pollinator-relevant policies across sectors. The current situation is very far from that ideal. Key policy domains that have critical shortcomings in pollinator stewardship that need to be remedied in order to enable the achievement of the EU NRR’s binding targets for pollinator restoration are: pesticide and chemical policies, the Food and Feed Omnibus, the Environment Omnibus, seed and reproductive material policies and new genomic techniques. These policies currently either (potentially or actually) counteract pollinator restoration or insufficiently utilize the potential for synergies with pollinator restoration.

The White Paper’s convening lead author Jeroen van der Sluijs will present the White Paper's main messages and recommendations.

This seminar will be in English.