Wild bees, butterflies, hoverflies and other animals that pollinate crops and wild plants are declining wherever they are well monitored, driven mainly by habitat loss, intensive farming, pesticides and climate change, while the number of managed honeybee hives has grown worldwide.
Written from the sources listed below, not independently peer-reviewed.
What share of the world's food crops rely at least in part on pollination by insects and other animals?
10%
Wild bee species at risk of extinction in Europe
At least 172 of the 1,928 wild bee species assessed for the 2025 European Red List of Bees are threatened. In 2014, 77 species were listed as threatened; part of the rise reflects better data, as the share of species too poorly known to assess fell from 57% to 14%.
Data year 2025. Source: International Union for Conservation of Nature, 2025
22%
Fall in butterfly numbers in the United States
Decline in the total abundance of butterflies across the contiguous US between 2000 and 2020, a rate of 1.3% a year, based on 12.6 million butterflies counted in 76,957 surveys. Of the 342 species with enough data, 33% declined significantly and 3% increased.
Data year 2020. Source: Edwards, C. B. et al., Science, 7 March 2025, 2025
More than 75%
Food crops that rely at least partly on animal pollination
Share of the world's food crop types that rely at least in part on pollination by insects and other animals, according to the 2016 IPBES assessment. This counts crop types, not food volume: pollinator-dependent crops make up up to 8% of global crop production.
Data year 2016. Source: Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, 2016
Unit: index (1991 = 100)
Both values come from the European Environment Agency (2026). The index is set to 100 in 1991, and the 2024 value expresses the reported 47% decline across 17 typical grassland butterfly species in the 27 EU countries. Large losses had already occurred before 1991, so the baseline is not a natural state. Only the two reported values are shown; the year-to-year path between them is not plotted.
There is no quantified global target for pollinators. The most concrete legal commitment is the EU Nature Restoration Regulation, under which member states must reverse the decline of pollinator populations by 2030 at the latest and show rising trends for agricultural indicators such as the grassland butterfly index. The latest data point the other way: the index fell by 47% between 1991 and 2024, no species in it is increasing, and declines continue both inside and outside protected areas.
Specialists are losing most: the 47% fall in the EU grassland butterfly index is driven mainly by rarer species tied to particular habitats. None of the 17 species in the index shows a significant increase, and seven show a significant decline.
Source: European Environment Agency, 2026More than 40% of butterfly species found only in Europe are threatened or near threatened, and climate change now affects 52% of Europe's threatened butterflies, about twice the share in the previous assessment, with heat, drought and wildfires damaging habitat in the south.
Source: International Union for Conservation of Nature, 2025Fifteen European bumblebee species are now threatened. Warmer temperatures harm bumblebees adapted to cool climates, while some heat-loving bees such as carpenter bees benefit.
Source: International Union for Conservation of Nature, 2025In the United States, every region had more declining than increasing butterfly species, and declines were most severe in the dry Southwest.
Source: Edwards, C. B. et al., Science, 7 March 2025, 2025Each country is shaded by its latest available value, so you can see where the gap is widest. Hover or tap a country, search for one, or open the full table.
Loading country values…
Values in kg per hectare.
No open country dataset measures pollinator populations, so this map shows a pressure: nitrogen, phosphate and potash fertilizer (excluding manure) per hectare of arable land, a marker of the farming intensification that IPBES and IUCN name among the main drivers of pollinator decline. It says nothing about how pollinators in a country are actually doing, and pesticide use is not included. Latest year available per country (mostly 2024; years can differ). Very high values occur where arable land is small or fertilizer goes largely to grassland and plantations (for example Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, New Zealand or Ireland), and very low values often reflect limited access to fertilizer rather than nature-friendly farming.
Source: FAO, via World Bank Open Data. Latest year available per country; years differ.
Values load from World Bank Open Data. Simplified Natural Earth borders; they imply no position on disputed territories.
Instead of one “percent solved” score, DO GOOD rates three separate dimensions. A problem can have mature solutions that still reach too few people. These ratings are an editorial reading of the sources on this page, not a measured index.
Has the situation improved in the real world?
LowWhere pollinators are monitored, they are declining: the EU grassland butterfly index fell by 47% between 1991 and 2024 and US butterfly numbers by 22% between 2000 and 2020. Rising numbers of managed hives do not offset the loss of wild species.
How mature and validated are the available solutions?
ModerateIPBES identified well-understood options, such as more diverse habitat in farmland and towns, reduced pesticide exposure and better bee husbandry, and the EU has banned all outdoor uses of three neonicotinoids. Evidence that these measures reverse declines at the scale of whole populations is still limited.
How widely are effective solutions actually used?
LowPollinator-friendly measures are applied patchily, and even in the EU, which has the most developed policy, declines continue inside and outside protected areas and none of the 17 grassland butterfly species in its index is increasing.
Confirmed declines of wild pollinators come mainly from north-western Europe and North America; for other regions IPBES found data too sparse to draw broad conclusions. Data in Europe have improved, with the share of bee species too poorly known to assess falling from 57% to 14%.
The number of threatened butterfly species in Europe rose from 37 in 2010 to 65 in 2025, and threatened bees from 77 to at least 172, although better data explain part of the bee increase. US butterfly numbers fell by 1.3% a year over two decades.
Most flowering plants need animals to move pollen between flowers before they can set seed or fruit. Nearly 90% of wild flowering plants depend on animal pollination at least to some extent, and so do more than three-quarters of the world's food crops, including many fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds that supply vitamins and minerals. The intergovernmental science body IPBES estimated in its 2016 pollinators assessment that between US$235 billion and US$577 billion of annual global food production relies directly on pollinators. Most of this work is done by wild species: there are more than 20,000 species of wild bees alone, along with butterflies, hoverflies and many other insects and some vertebrates. Managed colonies, mostly honeybees, make up less than 1% of bee species. Crop yields depend on both, and the two are faring very differently.
The number of managed beehives has grown worldwide over the past 50 years, although hives have decreased in many European and North American countries, and pests and diseases are a particular threat to managed bees. Wild pollinators, by contrast, are declining wherever they are well studied. In Europe, at least 172 of 1,928 assessed wild bee species (about 10%) and 65 of 442 butterfly species (15%) are at risk of extinction, and the EU's grassland butterfly index fell by 47% between 1991 and 2024. In the United States, butterfly numbers fell by 22% between 2000 and 2020. IPBES estimated that 16% of vertebrate pollinators are threatened with global extinction. The main causes are the loss and degradation of habitat through farming intensification, changes in land use and land abandonment, pesticides including neonicotinoid insecticides, nitrogen from fertilisers, climate change, invasive species and diseases. For most of Africa, Asia and Latin America, data are too sparse to say how pollinators are faring.
There is no single global index of pollinators. Evidence comes from extinction-risk assessments, long-running counts of a few well-studied groups, and estimates of how much food production depends on pollination. Wild pollinators and managed honeybees need to be looked at separately, because their numbers move in different directions. Pollinators fall under SDG 15 (Life on Land). The main measures are:
Wild and managed pollinators
Wild pollinators include more than 20,000 bee species as well as butterflies, hoverflies, other insects and some vertebrates. Managed bees, chosen for honey or crop pollination, make up less than 1% of bee species. Rising hive numbers say little about wild species, so a growing beekeeping sector can coexist with a sharp decline of wild pollinators.
Extinction risk: Red List assessments
IUCN experts classify species from Least Concern to Extinct using criteria such as population decline and range size. In Europe, all bee and butterfly species were reassessed in 2025. Species with too little information are listed as Data Deficient: for European bees this share fell from 57% in 2014 to 14%, which also explains part of the rise in the number of bees listed as threatened.
Abundance: standardised counts
Changes in numbers are tracked by counting insects along fixed routes, so far mainly for butterflies. The EU grassland butterfly index draws on more than 3,800 such transects in 30 monitoring schemes, and a 2025 study of US butterflies combined 76,957 surveys from 35 programmes. Outside north-western Europe and North America, IPBES found data too sparse for broad conclusions.
Dependence of food production
Two figures are often confused. About 75% of the world's most important crops depend at least partly on pollinators, but these crops make up only up to 8% of global crop production, worth around US$577 billion a year. The main risk is therefore to the supply and variety of fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, many of which are important sources of vitamins and minerals.
What works
Flower-rich field margins, hedgerows, species-rich grassland and varied crop rotations give wild pollinators food and nesting sites. IPBES lists maintaining or creating greater diversity of pollinator habitats in agricultural and urban landscapes as a central option.
Limits
Small habitat patches cannot compensate for intensification across whole landscapes, and land abandonment in less productive areas also destroys habitat. In the EU, grassland butterfly declines continue even inside protected areas.
What works
IPBES found that pesticides, including neonicotinoid insecticides, threaten pollinators worldwide. The EU restricted three neonicotinoids on bee-attractive crops in 2013 and banned all their outdoor uses in 2018; their approvals have since expired.
Limits
Ten EU member states repeatedly granted emergency authorisations for sugar beet before the EU Court of Justice ruled in January 2023 that this was no longer allowed. A related neonicotinoid, acetamiprid, remains approved until 2033, and herbicides harm pollinators indirectly by removing flowering plants.
What works
Better disease detection and management, and rules on the trade and movement of bees, can reduce the pests and diseases that are a particular threat to managed honeybees.
Limits
These measures protect the less than 1% of bee species that are managed. They do nothing for wild pollinators that lose their habitat, and crop yields depend on both wild and managed species.
What works
The EU Nature Restoration Regulation requires member states to reverse pollinator decline by 2030 at the latest and has set up an EU-wide pollinator monitoring system, so progress is measured rather than assumed.
Limits
The obligations are new and apply only in the EU, and the 1991 baseline of the main indicator already reflects large earlier losses, so stopping the decline would not mean returning to a healthy state.
What works
IPBES recommends supporting traditional practices that keep landscapes varied, such as habitat patchiness and crop rotation, and exchanging knowledge among farmers, scientists, industry and the public.
Limits
Many of these practices are themselves declining, which IPBES counts as a threat to pollinators, and knowledge alone does not change the economic pressures that drive intensification.
Promising, but not proven at scale. The stage shows how far each approach has come; it is not a recommendation.
Based on the Nature Restoration Regulation, the EU has set up an EU-wide monitoring system for pollinators, which the new European Red Lists are meant to support. It should give a common baseline across member states, but meaningful time series will take years to build.
The 2025 US butterfly study pooled data from 35 programmes, including volunteer counts, into one national estimate. Similar pooling could produce trends for regions without a single monitoring scheme, but uneven survey effort and gaps in species coverage limit what can be concluded.
Camera traps, light traps with cameras and image-recognition software are being tested to count flying insects with less expert labour. Identifying many bee and fly species from images remains unreliable, and the methods are not yet standardised.
Biological control, targeted application and technologies that reduce spray drift aim to lower pollinators' exposure while protecting harvests, as IPBES recommends. Their effectiveness differs by crop and pest, and for some crops growers may still lack practical alternatives.
Knowledge gap
IPBES found that outside north-western Europe and North America, data on pollinators are too sparse to draw broad conclusions. The regions where the most people depend on small-scale farming are the least monitored.
Knowledge gap
Even in Europe, 14% of bee species remain too poorly known to assess, and hoverflies were last assessed in 2022. Globally, most of the more than 20,000 wild bee species and the many pollinating flies, moths and beetles have no extinction-risk assessment.
Implementation gap
After the EU banned outdoor uses of three neonicotinoids, ten member states repeatedly granted emergency authorisations for sugar beet, until the Court of Justice ended the practice in January 2023. The episode shows how much enforcement depends on political will.
Coordination gap
Intensification of farming and forestry, together with abandonment of less productive land, remains the main cause of habitat loss for European bees and butterflies. Reversing it depends on farm, forestry and land-use policy, not on nature policy alone.
Implementation gap
Grassland butterfly declines in the EU continue both inside and outside protected areas, so designating sites does not by itself secure pollinator populations.
Technology gap
IPBES found that the sub-lethal and indirect effects of genetically modified crops on pollinators are poorly understood, and outside a few regions there are no established ways to monitor wild bees and other insect pollinators at scale.
Unresolved questions, not vetted breakthroughs. Answering any of them would change what is possible.
Almost all long-term trends come from Europe and North America. Are wild pollinators in Africa, Asia and Latin America declining at similar rates, and which pressures dominate there?
Pesticides, poor nutrition from flower-poor landscapes, diseases and heat stress often act together. How do they interact, and which combinations cause the steepest declines?
How often are crop yields already limited by too few pollinators, and how much can managed bees make up for the loss of wild species in different crops and regions?
Where large numbers of honeybee hives are placed, do they take food from wild bees or spread diseases to them, and how should hive numbers near sensitive habitats be managed?
Native flowering plants, less frequent mowing and patches of bare ground or dead stems give wild bees food and nesting sites in gardens, on balconies and in school grounds. Each patch is small, but connected patches in a neighbourhood can help.
Garden and household insecticides can harm bees and butterflies. Using them only when really needed, never on plants in flower, reduces exposure.
Butterfly transects, bumblebee walks and citizen-science recording apps feed the monitoring programmes behind national and European trends. Taking part helps fill data gaps.
Honeybee hives have increased worldwide while wild bees decline, so more hives are not a remedy for wild pollinators. Asking your council or landowners to manage verges and parks for flowers helps wild species directly.
Ideas visitors sent in for this challenge, read by the DO GOOD team and pinned with permission. The colour shows the kind of contribution.
Loading the board…
What happens next
The DO GOOD team reads every idea and sorts it by colour: solution, research question, existing project, evidence or local action.
If you agree to publication, it can be pinned to this board. Contact details are never shown.
Pinned ideas are not reviewed by scientists and are not endorsed by DO GOOD.
This page is a research overview. DO GOOD does not run a dedicated programme on this challenge, and donations are not earmarked for it. You can join our volunteer work and outreach.
Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), UNEA-2, Nairobi, May 2016, published 2016
IPBES briefing on its pollinators assessment, approved in Kuala Lumpur and released on 26 February 2016 by 77 experts; it is still the only global assessment of pollinators. Source of crop dependence (more than three-quarters of food crops), wild plant dependence (nearly 90%), the US$235–577 billion value, 20,000 wild bee species, 16% of vertebrate pollinators threatened, local invertebrate threats, the rise in hives globally and fall in Europe and North America, threats including pesticides and GM crops, data gaps outside north-western Europe and North America, and the list of policy options.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 20 May 2025, published 2025
FAO news release. Source of the 75% of the world's most important crops that benefit from pollinators, the up to 8% of global crop production worth around US$577 billion a year, and FAO's list of threats to pollinators.
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), press release, October 2025, published 2025
Release on the updated European Red Lists of Bees and Butterflies. Source of threatened bees (at least 172 of 1,928, about 10%; 77 in 2014; Data Deficient 57% to 14%), threatened butterflies (65 of 442, 15%; 37 in 2010), bumblebees, endemic butterflies, the 52% of threatened butterflies affected by climate change, threats (habitat loss, intensification, abandonment, fertilisers, pesticides), managed bees as less than 1% of species and the EU-wide pollinator monitoring system.
European Environment Agency (EEA), indicator, published 23 June 2026, published 2026
Official EU indicator built from butterfly monitoring schemes. Source of the 47% decline of 17 grassland species between 1991 and 2024 in the 27 EU countries, the 3,800 transects in 30 schemes, species trends, drivers, declines inside and outside protected areas, the pre-1991 losses and the Nature Restoration Regulation's 2030 obligation.
Edwards, C. B. et al., Science, 7 March 2025 (author copy hosted by Michigan State University), published 2025
Peer-reviewed analysis of 76,957 surveys from 35 monitoring programmes (12.6 million butterflies, 554 species). Source of the 22% decline in total abundance from 2000 to 2020 (1.3% a year), the shares of declining and increasing species, regional patterns and the named drivers.
European Commission, Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety, published 2023
Commission page on EU rules for neonicotinoid insecticides. Source of the 2013 restriction and 2018 outdoor-use ban of clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam, their expired approvals, acetamiprid's renewal until 2033, the sugar beet emergency authorisations by ten member states and the Court of Justice ruling of 19 January 2023.
DO GOOD International (2026). Protecting Pollinators. Global Challenges. Updated October 15, 2026. https://www.dogood.world/challenges/pollinator-decline
For figures, please cite the original sources listed above.