Survival Arts are helping to support the Short-haired Bumblebee Reintroduction Project (click here for information about that) by getting people to create works of art based on this bee species. Entries to the competition will be considered for use on products being sold by Survival Arts, the proceeds of which will go toward the Reintroduction Project. The winner will also receive £300.  There's more information on how to enter on the Survival Arts website  at http://www.survival-arts.org/bee-art-competition/

Position statement, April 2013

On Friday 5 April 2013, the House of Common’s Environmental Audit Committee released its report “Pollinators and Pesticides”. The Bumblebee Conservation Trust (BBCT) has advocated for the application of the precautionary principle and now feels with the body of evidence available that the three criteria needed for its application have been met. The BBCT thereby calls for a temporary moratorium on the use of neonicotinoid pesticides on crops of insect-pollinated plants and for domestic use (e.g. in gardens). However, the BBCT urges very strongly that further testing in the field is needed and that the agrochemical companies should make public the results of their risk assessment trials to inform further research.  In calling for a precautionary moratorium, the Bumblebee Conservation Trust continues to urge governments in the UK and those in Europe to:

March 2013

The Bumblebee Conservation Trust continues to follow the debate about neonicotinoids and remains exceedingly concerned about their effect on pollinators, including bumblebees, and the environment.  It continues to call for the use of the precautionary principle as it is defined in Article 191 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

In calling for the precautionary principle to be invoked, the Bumblebee Conservation Trust continues to urge governments in the UK and those in Europe to:

Your countryside is in crisis!

Urge  your politicians in Brussels to vote for  farming that supports nature.

This is an urgent call for your support for a series of actions being rolled out by NGOs across Europe to try to influence MEPs ahead of the ‘crunch’ plenary session of the European Parliament on 13 March. Whilst the outcomes of the recent Agriculture Committee and EU budget negotiations were not good from an environmental perspective, there is still much to fight for. The European Environment Bureau (EEB), Birdlife International and WWF have joined forces to develop a series of ‘actions’ to target MEPs across Europe ahead of the plenary session.

Position Statement, December 2012

There is now mounting evidence of the problems associated with neonicotinoid insecticides.   The Bumblebee Conservation Trust is seriously concerned by the results of research published in the leading international journals Science and Nature, demonstrating the sub-lethal effects of neonicotinoid insecticides on bumblebees.

Harm to populations of pollinator insects, especially bumblebees, erodes the ecosystem service provided by pollination, potentially reducing the economic value of many agricultural and horticultural crops, as well as contributing to a decrease in the United Kingdom’s biodiversity.
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