Those who lived in Spain in the 1980s will surely remember the summer holidays on the beach or in the village, which they arrived at after long road trips, in a Talbot Horizon or Seat Panda full of suitcases and the hubbub of children. The destination, the hours of travel or the model of car did not matter. What those holidays had in common was the inexorable trail of flies, mosquitoes, bumblebees, butterflies and the occasional grasshopper crashing onto the windscreen after miles of travel. In recent years, however, cars arrive dusty but with far fewer insects. What has happened to bring about this change?
“For a while, this gradual absence of insects on car windscreens was explained by the fact that adults remember and pay more attention to aspects of childhood, such as the more leisurely summers, and that makes us realise something that would otherwise go unnoticed. But this supposed bias has now been disproved by scientific research: the decline in insects worldwide is a fact,” says Yeray Monasterio, an expert in lepidoptera and president of the Spanish Association for the Protection of Butterflies and their Environment (Asociación Española para la Protección de las Mariposas y sus Ambiente).ZERYNTHIA). In fact, the last European studies The studies in which he has participated, with reports for the European Environment Agency, confirm that there has been a 30-40% decrease in meadow butterflies in the last decade. “The feeling is that there have never been fewer insects than this year: we have never experienced anything like this, that the flowers are empty. The countryside is at a standstill and that is worrying,” insists Monasterio.
Albert Einstein is credited (although there are no documents to confirm this) with saying: “If bees disappear from the Earth, man has four years to live”, referring to the consequences of the disappearance of pollination on crops and the world’s food supply. In reality, it is not only the decline of honey bees, in particular, that is a risk, but of any type of pollinators. “It is not rigorous to say that all the crops we feed on will disappear. We could grow wheat, corn or rice, for example, because they do not need pollinators. But it would lead to malnutrition. It is the plants that produce flowers and fruits that depend on pollination. When we eat tomatoes, peppers or tangerines, we forget that this fruit is the product of a flower that was visited by an insect,” Monasterio adds. The overuse of pesticides has forced fruit growers in some regions of China and the United States to sharpen their ingenuity in order to carry out “manual” pollination of their fruit trees, given the scarcity of natural pollinators.
Although there are many reasons for the extinction of insects, the abuse of chemicals and pesticides are some of the common causes that explain the gradual loss of biodiversity. Climate change, extreme temperatures and the transformation of landscapes due to changes in agricultural and livestock models are also responsible. “Spain was a country of large herds, which were the economic power of the country. This kept open spaces fertilised in a balanced way, and natural clearing work kept the vegetation in a state of grassland. With the disappearance of these transhumant herds and the progression of empty Spain, the grasslands are being lost, replaced by forests and scrubland, where pollinators do not live,” explains the expert.
Hotels and oases for insects
Spain is part of the International Coalition for the Conservation of Pollinators and has developed a National strategyfollowing the European Union initiativeto reverse the decline of these insects by 2030. In fact, European data indicate that one in ten species of bees and butterflies is in danger of extinction and, at the same time, 80% of wild or cultivated flowering plant species depend precisely on natural pollination. The strategy proposes measures such as promoting pollinator habitats (planting nutritious varieties, i.e. flowers that serve as a food source for these insects, next to agricultural land, crop rotation and creation of semi-natural spaces with floral resources and breeding nests), promoting organic farming, reducing the overuse of chemical pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers, while research should be encouraged to improve the management and conservation of pollinators.
What can the average citizen do to recover this lost biodiversity? If you have a balcony or a garden, the so-called “insect hotels” take up little space and provide a refuge and nesting place for invertebrates. They are small wooden or bamboo constructions, sheltered from the sun and rain, with circular indentations that imitate nests in the natural environment, to promote the protection and survival of pollinators.
Another alternative, promoted by the ZERYNTHIA Association, is the so-called “butterfly oasis”. “Our suggestion is that if someone has a flowerpot or a garden, they should grow native varieties that insects are able to recognise. There are very exotic plants that are pollinated by birds, bats or reptiles in other countries, but in Spain they are of no use to the pollinators that we have. Others are very pretty and colourful, but clearly invasive,” explains the president of the association. And he points out that the exuberant Buddleja davidiiof Asian origin and widespread in the Cantabrian Coast and Catalonia, for example, is included in the National Catalogue of Invasive Alien Species and should be discarded if offered in nurseries. “In the Canary Islands, the plant known as cat’s tail (Pennisetum setaceum) arrived as an ornamental plant and is colonizing cliffs and mountains, destroying native biodiversity in its path,” he warns.
So instead of choosing and growing flowers just for their beauty, the association proposes lists of plants that are favourable to lepidopterans and other insects, which can also be aromatic (such as rosemary, lavender, sage, thyme, lavender and common lilac) and even edible, such as wild or cultivated carrot, parsley, coriander, cardamom or fennel.
Individuals, public and private entities and educational communities that have a small green space and want to create a “butterfly oasis” can contact the association, receive a poster indicating which flowers and insects can be observed in their natural refuge and become part of the state network of oases.
Another initiative in which any hiker and nature lover can participate is the photographic identification of protected Lepidoptera species in Spain (such as the diurnal butterflies Iberian Sulphur, Sierra Nevada Girl, the Spotted Anteater or the Violet Mantle, and nocturnal butterflies such as Catax, Proserpina or the Sea Buckthorn Sphinx), sharing the photo of the butterfly and where it was seen in the citizen science platform of the project intended for the identification of these protected species.
To facilitate the identification of species (at least those present in urban areas of Madrid), the Royal Botanical Garden-CSIC has developed a Pollinator Guide and specific teaching material for teachers and environmental educators. The aim is to contribute to raising public awareness about the importance of pollinators, which is expanded with activities scheduled throughout the year. “The Botanical Garden has launched a project with four actions aimed at wild bees. The first is a specialization course, taught by an entomologist and aimed at people who already work in environmental education and in the management of green areas in Madrid,” describes Clara Vignolo, a technician from the Scientific Culture Unit of the Garden.
The bee fauna will stop in autumn and winter, so the activities of this programme at the Botanical Garden will continue next spring. “We have planned workshops to promote knowledge and observation of wild bees for the general public. Another of the actions for spring and summer next year will be a wild bee photography contest and a photographic exhibition in the garden area of the Botanical Garden, with a selection of the photographs from the contest. And as a final action we will publish a guide to photographs of the exhibition,” Vignolo says.
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