Bumblebees are fascinating and beautiful creatures that deserve conserving in their own right. However, there are also pressing ecological and economic reasons to halt their declines. The Bumblebee Conservation Trust has a campaign to save the Bumblebee.

How you can help

Bumblebees are major pollinators of a majority of our flora. If bumblebees continue to disappear these plants will set less seed, potentially resulting in gradual but sweeping changes to the countryside. It may ultimately become dominated by an entirely different suite of plants that do not require bumblebee pollination. Clovers, vetches, and many rare plants may disappear.

Indeed, there is evidence that this process is already underway. These changes will have catastrophic knock-on effects for other wildlife dependent on these plants. As such, it is often argued that bumblebees are keystone species, and that they are a conservation priority.

Bumblebees are also of commercial importance, being vital to the agricultural industry. Many arable and horticultural crops depend on bumblebees for pollination to varying degrees. Some, like oilseed rape, can set adequate seed without bumblebees provided there are sufficient honeybees, but others, such as broad, field and runner beans and raspberries are heavily dependent on bumblebees. Without them there would be little or no crop to harvest.

There is already evidence that in some regions where fields are large and there are few hedgerows (in which bumblebee queens forage in spring and build their nests) crop yields are depressed due to a shortage of bumblebees.

It is thus essential that we take steps to conserve our remaining bumblebee populations, and if possible restore them to something like their past abundance.

If you would like to support our work membership is available to all, and adult membership starts at just £1 per month. Also, you can make a donation by clicking the "Donate" buttom above.