Buglife launch B-Lines across Scotland

This week, conservation charity Buglife launched a complete B-Lines map for Scotland. B-Lines is the response to the decline of bees and other pollinating insects, a plan for how to reconnect our wild places by creating a network of wildflowers across our landscapes.

Our precious pollinators are disappearing from large parts of the countryside – there are fewer bees, hoverflies, butterflies and moths – and as well as the loss of abundance, some species are at risk of extinction in Scotland. But we can change this, by working together to restore wildflower areas in our countryside and urban areas we can aid nature’s recovery.

B-Lines provide an opportunity to create a network of wildflower-rich areas across Scotland providing essential routes for pollinators to use. The B-Lines network in Scotland includes our best habitats and identifies key areas to restore and create new wildflower-rich meadows, important grassland verges and pollinator friendly gardens. B-Lines can be adopted by farmers and landowners, local authorities and the general public across all of Scotland.

Patrick Harvie, species champion for the red mason bee, MSP for Glasgow and co-convenor of the Scottish Green Party said “It's hard to overstate the important role that pollinating insects play in keeping our environmental life-support system running. Their decline is a serious problem throughout the world, but as Buglife's B-Lines map shows we can all play a positive role in helping them recover.”

Buglife Scotland Manager, Natalie Stevenson, said “launching B-lines across Scotland will help us forge strong regional partnerships so together we can improve habitats and ensure that the important ecological services provided by pollinators can be sustained. People across Scotland are realising how critical invertebrates are for a nature-rich future and are beginning to change the way they manage our grasslands, but there is so much more we can do. Let us have those critical conversations now and lead the change for our future.”

Everyone who manages land across Scotland can help to restore our pollinator populations. Take a look at the B-Lines map and see if your farm, garden, local park or other land you manage is on a BLine. And if you would like to get involved please contact us at Buglife Scotland.

Special thanks to the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation for supporting this project, and the help of all the local and national partners who have helped to map the B-Lines network for Scotland.

Link: https://www.buglife.org.uk/our-work/b-lines/