European policy instruments for pollinators

Conservation of pollinators, or any other component of biodiversity, requires actions across policy sectors and multiple spatial scales. Key instruments covering pollinators in Europe include: (1) the International Pollinator Initiative, which is part of the programme on Agricultural Biodiversity of the Convention on Biological Diversity, which all European Union Member States have signed up to; (2) National Biodiversity Strategies which provide a framework of Action Plans targeted at habitats, species and local issues of conservation concern; (3) Agri-environment schemes, obligatory for all European Union Member States, where farmers receive payments for providing environmental services; (4) protected area legislation which operates from large-scale continental networks of protected areas through to local nature reserves; (5) Regional and national Red Lists which provide objective assessments of extinction risks. Other policy sectors, such as transport and trade, are also increasingly developing legislation which considers pollinators.