White House announces the National Strategy to Promote Pollinator Health

On May 19, the White House announced the National Strategy to Promote Pollinator Health. The strategy released and its accompanying Pollinator Research Action Plan outline needs and priority actions to better understand pollinator losses, improve pollinator health, and to enhance pollinator habitat.

The strategy’s broad-reaching goals are to:
•    Restore colony health to sustainable levels by 2025.
•    Increase Eastern monarch butterfly populations to 225 million butterflies by year 2020.
•    Restore or enhance seven million acres of land for pollinators over the next five years.

According to the White House, the strategy and its accompanying science-based Pollinator Research Action Plan outline needs and priority actions to better understand pollinator losses and improve pollinator health.

“These actions will be supported by coordination of existing federal research efforts and accompanied by a request to Congress for additional resources to respond to the pollinator losses that are being experienced,” says John Holdren is assistant to the president for Science & Technology and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Bayer CropScience calls it a “balanced and multi-faceted approach,” and welcomes the release of the strategy document. Bayer commended the call for extensive new research into all aspects of pollinator health and the unprecedented commitment to increase pollinator habitat and forage.

“While bee populations are not declining, they face many complex challenges, some of which we’re only just beginning to fully understand.  Improving honeybee health will take a concerted effort from all stakeholders, including the public, and this strategy will help provide a framework for our collective response,” says Becky Langer, head of Bayer CropScience’s North American Bee Care Program.