UK Agrees to Ban Pesticides That Destroy Bee Populations

As bee populations around the globe continue to dwindle, more countries are stepping up to save them. The latest nation taking action against the threat of pollinator decline is Britain. The UK’s environment secretary Michael Gove recently announced that the country will join the European Union in restricting a type of pesticide harming bees.

The decision was made in light of a German study reporting that the number of flying insects in some areas have declined by 75 percent in just a quarter of a decade. Of the species dying off en masse, bees are the most concerning: The insects pollinate a significant portion of our crops, and without them humans could face an agricultural crisis. “These particular flying insects are absolutely critical to the health of the natural world,” Gove wrote for The Guardian. “Without a healthy pollinator population we put the whole ecological balance of our world in danger.”

The alarming state of bee populations is likely a mix of several factors, but human-made insecticides are one of the biggest contributors. Neonicotinoids, the chemical compounds covered by the proposed ban, are the most commonly used insecticides on Earth, and they’ve also been shown to have devastating effects on bee colonies. Getting rid of them completely was first proposed by the European Union in 2013, and after initially opposing the move, the UK is finally getting on board.

Neonicotinoids are slowly being phased out in the U.S., where beekeepers have been reporting bees disappearing from their hives for the last decade or so. If you want to make your backyard a more hospitable place for your tiny, flower-loving neighbors, here are some ways you can help right now.