While 75% of the most important crops depend on insect pollination, insects are in decline across the world due to industrial farming and heavy pesticide use, according to the Insect Atlas published on Tuesday 9 June by the Heinrich-Böll Stiftung and the NGO Friends of the Earth Europe (FoE Europe).
Forty-one percent of insect species are in decline and one third of all insect species examined are threatened with extinction.
Pollinators, which contribute directly to about one-third of global food production, are under threat. This is the case for at least one in ten bee or butterfly species in Europe.
To save insect populations, the two NGOs believe that the European Parliament and the EU Council must take urgent actions to achieve the targets suggested in the EU's 'Farm to Fork' and 'Biodiversity' strategies.
They advocate: - to reduce the use of synthetic pesticides by 80% in agriculture by 2030, with a just transition for farmers; - to earmark at least 50% of the future CAP budget for environmental, nature and climate objectives and to support farmers in the transition to agroecology; - to phase out farming methods which increase pesticide use, such as growing genetically modified plants; - to reduce overall demand for agrocommodities in the EU in order to reduce global deforestation. https://bit.ly/2UtX55U (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)