It is now nearly sixty years since Rachel Carson published her book Silent Spring, which warned us of the dangers of the effects of pesticides in agriculture. David Goulson is an English Biology professor who has written many interesting, easy to read books on the need to help pollinators and how to do it. His first two books, The Garden Jungle and A Sting in the Tale have been translated into 15 languages but unfortunately not so far in Basque or Spanish. Silent Earth: Averting the Insect Apocalypse is his latest book which again warns us of the dangers of the collapse of the insect population, why that is a threat to world food production but with a message of hope that it is not too late to reverse the change.
Of course the main culprit is modern agriculture and the problems created by subsidizing unsustainable forms of industrial agriculture as opposed to insect friendly organic farming. Our government and local authorities should be doing everything possible to support these farmers who work with nature rather than against it.
Protecting our pollinators means protecting our wild flowers and to this end we in BBT have been trying to get local authorities to change their way of regarding wild flowers. Despite the fact that the population of pollinators has seen a dramatic decline, in contrast to other European countries, our government and local authorities have not changed their ways of managing green spaces. Surely it is time to re-think how we manage green spaces to take into account wild flowers and pollinators! When will we realize that wildflowers are beneficial, beautiful and free in contrast to the hybrid flowers that town-halls insist on buying despite the fact that they lack nectar and often have pesticides in them which are detrimental to the health of our pollinators? When will our road services department start re-assessing the need to cut so much of the road verges and so often?
A few years ago we proposed that local town-halls create butterfly oases which had a mixture of wildflowers, long grass and spaces with flowers especially good at attracting pollinators. In Mungia the oasis was created and then totally abandoned. The same thing happened in Gatika and now it looks as if the same thing could happen in Plentzia where apparently the town-hall has not been in contact with the gardener responsible for the uptake of the oasis since February. It must be said that the upkeep of an oasis is fairly cheap and doesn`t require much expense. And any expense could easily be met by reducing the time spent cutting grass in places where it is not necessary. For example, the oasis in Fruiz has hardly cost the town-hall anything, although the signs now need replacing.
In 2018 the EU launched an initiative to protect pollinators but unfortunately as can be seen in this report nothing has been achieved. Inevitably the main changes must involve changes in our agricultural practices but we also have a responsibility to protect wild flowers and pollinators in our towns. Let’s care for nature rather than systematically destroy it!
In September BBT members will be leading three walks organized by Jata-Ondo to inform people of the beauty of our pollinators, wild flowers and birds and we would ask our members and friends to once again support our work and to join us on these walks. Eskerrik asko!
