Germany’s New Wildflower Meadows Offer Urban Safe Havens to Bees and Insects

An endangered honey bee on a wildflower. Roberto Lopez / Unsplash In Germany, hope is growing for wild bees and insects. Surprisingly, it’s taking root in the country’s large urban cities, thanks to wildflower meadows being planted precisely to reverse precipitous declines in insect populations. Insects around the world are in danger. A 2020 study published in Science estimated that global bug populations are down 25 percent on land . Populations declined 9 percent every decade, meaning nearly a quarter of all insects have gone extinct in the last 30 years. The figure jumps to over half in the last 75 years. A different report estimated that all insects could be gone within 100 years . According to the BBC , the losses are the worst in the West and Midwest of the U.S. and in Europe — especially Germany. The Guardian reported that Germany is home to about 580 species of wild bees. More than half are endangered or on the verge of extinction. The news report cited a 2017 study by the Entomological Society of Krefeld which showed a 75 percent decline in total flying insect biomass in protected areas in Germany since 1989. Both the BBC […]

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