Bees

(asked on 12th January 2015) - View Source

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of efforts to reintroduce the short-haired bumblebee Bombus subterraneus to the UK.


Answered by
 Portrait
Dan Rogerson
This question was answered on 19th January 2015

The reintroduction of Bombus subterraneus (the short-haired bumblebee) to the UK has been underway since 2012 through a partnership between Natural England, the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, the RSPB and Hymettus. There have been annual releases of queen bees from Sweden in the Dungeness and Romney Marsh area of Kent. A number of landowners in the area are supporting the reintroduction by restoring the habitat that the species depends on using agri-environment schemes. The partnership project officer and a team of volunteers have been monitoring this habitat every summer and in 2013 and 2014 worker short-haired bumblebees were seen in the area. This provides direct evidence that at least some of the released queens have successfully formed colonies. Queen releases and monitoring of habitat will continue through to 2016 at which point it is hoped that there will be evidence that a self-sustaining population is becoming established.

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