What do we currently know about the impacts of pesticide and fertiliser use in farmland on the effectiveness of adjacent pollinator conservation measures such as flower strips and hedgerows, and what additional research is needed? : an EKLIPSE Expert Working Group report

EKLIPSE received a request by Pollinis on the 30th of June 2018, to produce an overview of the current knowledge and research gaps related to the impacts of pesticide and fertilizer use in farmland on the effectiveness of adjacent pollinator conservation measures. The call was answered through a Joint Fact Finding approach, including a workshop on the 9-10th Jan, 2020 at the Helmholtz Association, Brussels. This report documents the preparatory steps leading to the workshop, the deliberations during the workshop, as well as a summary of the main results and conclusions.A team of knowledge-holders, representing various perspectives, sectors and disciplines, was selected and invited to collate and share their trusted sources of knowledge on the topic. These sources could be reports, scientific papers, articles or online resources, and may not have previously been available to all parties. This body of information was evaluated for relevance to produce the preliminary document that was used as a basis for discussions during the workshop in Brussels. The workshop brought together a team of experts from academia, NGOs, beekeeper organisations, industry, and the requester organisation (Pollinis). The participants discussed the key findings from the identified evidence and knowledge gaps during the first day and identified a list of key research needs and policy recommendations during the second day. In addition to the research needs related to specific conservation measures, several cross-cutting themes emerged during the deliberations. The list of knowledge gaps were scored by the participants based on importance, feasibility and policy impact. Finally a list of policy recommendations were produced based on the outputs of the workshop.