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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to support an international treaty for global pollinator stewardship and pollinator ecosystem restoration.

The UK Government is committed to taking action for pollinators, globally and at home.

We have supported international action under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), including the “Plan of Action 2018-2030 for the International Initiative for the Conservation and Sustainable use of Pollinators” adopted at the CBD’s most recent Conference of the Parties in 2018. The UK is also a member of ‘Promote Pollinators’, an international coalition of the willing under which we have committed to take action to protect pollinators and their habitats, and with whom we share information on research, policy and practical activities.

We have supported and contributed to research which has underpinned such initiatives, including a major global review of the status and threats to insect pollinators, published in 2015 by the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

The UK is committed to playing a leading role in developing an ambitious post-2020 global framework for biodiversity under the CBD, expected to be adopted at COP-15 next year. In particular, we will promote ambitious and practical targets, including targets to enhance ecosystem resilience and species recovery, supported by strengthened implementation mechanisms that are commensurate with the scale of the challenge.

Domestically, biodiversity is a devolved issue and each country has its own pollinator strategy which includes objectives for ecosystem restoration and other action in line with these international commitments and initiatives. The four countries also collaborate on monitoring the status of pollinators across the UK.