1st October 2011

As part of its extended £750,000 Plan Bee campaign, the Co-Op is helping to identify and connect corridors of land to create and secure habitats for pollinators.

The Bee Roads pilot project, in conjunction with Buglife, the UK’s leading invertebrate charity, will engage local people in restoring flower rich meadows with the native plants that bumblebees, honey bees and butterflies love: red clover, lesser knapweed, field scabious and birdsfoot trefoil.

The UK has lost a whopping 97% of its wildflower meadows since the 1930’s. Over the past twenty five years over half of our honey bees have gone, along with three quarters of our butterfly species, and two thirds of moths, all of which are the primary pollinators of vital food and flower crops. The first Bee Roads start in Yorkshire, where farmers and other land owners will sow wildflowers in two long strips, eventually stretching north to south, and east to west across the entire county.

By linking wildlife sites with farms, forests, urban and national parks and gardens, Bee Roads hope to provide better access to food sources for pollinators and reverse their alarming decline. Bee Roads is a practical response to the recent Government White Paper on the Natural Environment, the first for 20 years, which places the value of nature at the centre of conservation choices. In 2010, an independent review concluded that England’s ecological networks and wildlife areas are fragmented due to human activity and not capable of responding to species loss and climate change.

Buglife,the Co-Op, the Wildlife Trust and the Butterfly Trust want to roll out Bee Roads right across Britain. This will provide some degree of connectivity for pollinators in isolated areas. The Co-Op is giving away 300,000 packets of wildflower seeds this year to support the campaign.