2021
Pollinator Park is an interactive digital tool to raise awareness about the alarming decline of pollinators and mobilise global action to address it. Conceived as part of the EU Pollinators Initiative, Pollinator Park should raise awareness, engage society at large and promote collaboration on wild pollinators. It helps ongoing European Green Deal efforts to address the nature and pollinator crises, notably as highlighted in the EU Biodiversity Strategy and the Farm to Fork Strategy. In particular, members of the EU’s Global Coalition “United for Biodiversity” are invited to use Pollinator Park as part of their own campaigns around biodiversity loss ahead of the Fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CoP 15) later this year. Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries Virginijus Sinkevičius said: “The alarming decline of insects that pollinate crops and wild plants puts food security at risk and threatens our survival. The EU is already working hard to reverse the loss of pollinators with the European Green Deal, but we need a broad effort across the society, with contributions from scientists and experts, businesses and citizens. Pollinator Park aims to show the dangers of ‘business as usual’, inviting us all to strengthen our efforts to protect pollinators and ensure a better future for ourselves and future generations.” Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides said: One third of all the food that we eat, our fruit, vegetables, oils and nuts, is pollinated by bees. The use in agriculture of pesticides that harm pollinators is one factor contributing to their decline. That is why we have banned the use of such substances, like certain neonicotinoids. Ensuring a high level of protection of pollinators is very important for the Commission when deciding on the approval of active substances for use in plant protection products and protection will be further enhanced by the reduction targets for pesticides in the Farm to Fork strategy. Designed in collaboration with world-renowned ‘archibiotect’ Vincent Callebaut, Pollinator Park offers a glimpse of the bleak future that awaits unless we radically change our relationship to nature. Publicly available as a web version and in virtual reality, it invites visitors to learn about pollinators, try their hand at pollination, shop for groceries in a pollinator-deprived world, and find out how they can help avoid this possible future. This new initiative attempts to harness the power of the fastest-growing media platform in the world – the world’s two billion video gamers – and thus targets younger generations in particular. The Commission is currently reviewing the EU Pollinators Initiative, with a view to further strengthening actions to reverse the decline of these precious insects and a public consultation is foreseen during the second half of this year. The Zero Pollution Action Plan expected in the following months is also going to make significant contributions to halt and reverse the loss of pollinators.
More information is in the news release. Visit the Pollinator Park here. (For more information: Vivian Loonela – Tel.: +32 229 66712; Daniela Stoycheva – Tel.: +32 229 53664)
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