200 Species of European Bees to Become Extinct, Environmental Report

Insecticides, fertilizers and climate issues have ganged up to eliminate almost 10 percent of 2,000 species of European wild bees, says a recent study, according to rt.

"Overall, 9.2 percent of bees are considered threatened in Europe, while at the EU-27 level, 9.1 percent are threatened with extinction," says a new report published as a part of the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) European Red List of Bees project. The project has been funded by the European Commission, with some data related to 1,965 wild bee species in Europe, including their status and distribution.

The survival of bees has been linked to modern agriculture, says the report, and these dangers include "intensive arable farming, livestock farming and the continued presence of commercial timber plantations." Another factor could be climate change.

"This report should be a wake-up call to the ecological disaster that is unfolding in Europe's countryside," Ariel Brunner, the head of EU policy at Birdlife told the Guardian.  "It's very clear that something is going horribly wrong with our agricultural practices which are the main driver of these declines, whether it is increased pesticide use, the destruction and conversion of grasslands, or the loss of natural vegetation and intensified farming methods."

The threat of extinction is mainly habitat loss due to agriculture intensification, including changes in agricultural practices including the use of pesticides and fertilizers, city change and development, rising forest fires as well as climate change, says the study. Moreover, herbicides may also impact their survival, as they "can reduce the availability of flowers on which bees depend and delay the flowering, so the timing between the period when food is most needed by pollinators and food availability is disrupted."

Karmenu Vella, European Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries pointed out that "Our quality of life - and our future - depends on the many services that nature provides for free. Pollination is one of these services, so it is very worrying to learn that some of our top pollinators [bees] are at risk!

"If we don't address the reasons behind this decline in wild bees, and act urgently to stop it, we could pay a very heavy price indeed," he added.

However, our knowledge about wild bees in Europe is very limited, as we face a lot of unknowns, such as an "alarming lack of expertise and resources," says Jean-Christophe Vié, deputy director of the IUCN Global Species Programme.

"Bees play an essential role in the pollination of our crops. We must urgently invest in further research in order to provide the best possible recommendations on how to reverse their decline," he said.

The report points out that annually, the bees offer crop pollination that is worth €153 billion globally and €22 billion in Europe. International agricultural production volumes are powered 35 percent by crops that are dependent on pollinators, mostly insects. From the 124 main crops that are tended to fuel human consumption patterns, 87 need insect pollination for seed production.