by ANDREA GERMANOS
“The evidence is clear: pesticide use is wiping out insect populations and ecosystems around the world, and threatening food production.”
A new report released Tuesday draws attention to the worldwide decline in insects and calls for global policies to boost the conservation of both agriculture and the six-footed creatures.
The publication, entitled Insect Atlas, comes from two progressive networks: Brussels-based Friends of the Earth and Berlin-based Heinrich Böll Foundation.
“The global loss of insects is dramatic,” Heinrich Böll Foundation president Barbara Unmüßig said in a statement.
The report points to various studies documenting that loss, including 2018 research finding 41% of insect species are in decline and that one-third of all insect species are threatened by extinction. The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) estimated that 10 percent of insect species are endangered, and another study cited in the new analysis found that at least one in 10 bee and butterfly species in Europe is threatened with extinction.
While there’s no definitive count of the global loss of insects, Insect Atlas says the trend is unmistakable.
Image from Insect Atlas. (Bartz/Stockmar, CC BY 4.0)
That decline has major impacts on food.
“Three-quarters of the world’s most important crops exhibit a yield benefit from pollinators: they contribute directly to around one-third of global food production,” says the report.
The methods used for that production have a huge impact on insects.
“Alongside climate change and light pollution, the spread and intensification of farming is by far the most important cause of the global decline in insect numbers,” the report adds.
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