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Pollinator Protection
Pollinator Topics - Quick Finder |
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| Pollinator Protection: Then & Now Strategic Plan & Current Activities to Protect Pollinators | Advancing the Science Risk Management | Coordination & Outreach |
Many different insects and animals are pollinators -- for example ants, birds, bats, and of course bees. And many plants depend on them for pollination -- fruits and vegetables, but also grains, grasses, and even trees. Although it's easy to forget the importance of pollinators, it's critical that we help protect them from environmental risks.
EPA's Pesticide Program is working with national and international partners to protect pollinators through regulatory, voluntary, and research programs. With a report documenting the threat to pollinators, National Research Council’s report on the Status of Pollinators in North America 
and the advent of a serious threat to bees, Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) in 2006, we reviewed our approach to see if we could reduce potential pesticide risks to pollinators.
We are concerned about Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) and are engaged in national and international interagency efforts to address this issue. The prevailing theory among EPA and others in the global scientific and regulatory community is that CCD and the declining health of honey bees in general are related to complex interactions between multiple stressors that these organisms encounter, including inadequate food sources, diseases (such as parasites and viruses), habitat loss and bee management practices, as well as pesticides. Relative to the potential role of pesticides in pollinator health declines, the science is still progressing as we seek to learn what regulatory changes, if any, may be effective.
EPA’s Pollinator Protection Team is leading our effort to ensure pollinators are protected from unreasonable adverse effects of pesticides and that EPA’s decisions are supported by sound science consistent with federal pesticide law. The Pollinator Protection Team’s strategic plan reflects the importance of pollinators to human health and the environment and lays out our goals to advance the science, policy, and outreach for pollinator protection.
These Web pages summarize what EPA is doing to protect pollinators:
More Information
- Pesticide Issues in the Works – Colony Collapse Disorder
- Find out more about colony collapse disorder from the USDA Agricultural Research Service
- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Pollinators Web site