[Pollinator] Operation Pollinator

[David Inouye]

 From Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, November 2009

“Operation Pollinator”
Virginia Gewin

Recent efforts to re-establish declining 
pollinator species have focused on curbing losses 
of honeybee populations due to colony collapse 
disorder. But scientists argue that a focus on 
“wild” pollinators is an equally worthwhile 
strategy. To that end, agribusiness giant 
Syngenta (Basel, Switzerland) has begun a €1 
million program, dubbed “Operation Pollinator”, 
to boost native pollinating insects across 
Europe, by planting low-cost seed mixtures 
containing specific pollen- and nectar-rich 
forage plants near agricultural lands.

“Habitat loss, stemming from changes in land use 
and intensification of agriculture, is widely 
agreed to be the major driver of wild pollinator 
losses across the UK and Europe”, says ecologist 
Claire Carvell (UK Centre for Ecology and 
Hydrology, Wallingford, Oxfordshire). Carvell 
helped develop plant mixtures that – when sown at 
the edges of cropped fields –boost bumblebee 
numbers more than 30-fold. These mixtures were 
developed as part of “Operation Bumblebee”, a 
collaboration with Syngenta that resulted in over 
1000 planted hectares. Despite the initial 
emphasis on bumblebee-oriented plants, the 
mixtures increased the number and diversity of a 
wide range of pollinators, including butterflies 
and non-social bee species, such as mason bees. 
Interestingly, Carvel found that sowing these 
mixtures into more intensively farmed areas 
attracts higher densities of bees than sowing 
into more biodiverse areas – suggesting that 
planting mixtures in poorer quality landscapes will have greater benefits.

Syngenta, in collaboration with the National Fish 
and Wildlife Foundation (Washington, DC), is 
currently expanding their efforts to key 
horticultural areas in the US, including 
California, Florida, and Michigan. The 
independent research will define the preferred 
seed mixtures for specific ecoregions and develop 
activities to establish and manage pollinator 
habitat. “The goal is to develop land-use 
management practices that are practical and cost 
effective, and will improve productivity on the 
farm”, says Jeff Peters, Sustainability Technical 
Manager at Syngenta Crop Protection (Greensboro, 
NC). “We view restoring habitat for pollinators 
as a supplemental insurance policy – one that 
makes the most of marginal cropland by increasing biodiversity”, he explains.

The challenge is finding native, 
ecoregion-specific plant mixtures able to produce 
a sequential bloom and therefore long-term 
foraging habitat from spring through fall, and to 
include plants that will not dominate the 
landscape over time. Ideally, says Peters, at 
least 15 farmers in each US region will be 
recruited to the campaign, to establish best 
management practices necessary to maintain these 
mixtures. “We want this program to flourish”, he 
continues, “because agriculture and biodiversity can coexist”.

http://operationpollinator.com/