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Yesterday, during the Wild Summit event, the UK’s leading insect conservation charities supported by organisations, institutions, and community representatives issued a united Declaration on UK Insect Declines, calling for urgent, coordinated action to address the steep and ongoing losses in the United Kingdom’s insect populations.

The declaration, proposed by Buglife, Butterfly Conservation and the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, and supported by over 60 signatories, urges governments, land managers, businesses, and the public to take immediate steps to reverse declines in insect abundance, diversity, and distribution. It calls for widespread restoration of insect-rich habitats, bold reductions in pesticide and pollutant use, stronger legal protections, and major investment in research, monitoring, and public engagement.

“Reversing insect decline is essential, not optional,” the declaration states, “for halting nature loss and achieving the UK’s climate and biodiversity goals.”

Insects: Critical to Life, Rapidly Declining

Insects are essential to ecosystem functioning they pollinate crops and wild plants, recycle nutrients, maintain healthy soils, control pests, and form the base of the food web for birds, bats, fish, and other wildlife. However, a growing body of scientific evidence shows the UK’s insects are in serious trouble:

• The latest findings from BeeWalk, the national bumblebee monitoring scheme run by the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, revealed that 2024 was the worst year for bumblebees since records began. Across Great Britain, bumblebee numbers declined by almost a quarter (22.5%) compared to the 2010-2023 average.
• Butterfly Conservation’s Big Butterfly Count results from this year revealed butterflies were only seen in average numbers, despite the near perfect weather conditions for the insects. The sunniest spring and hottest summer on record did little to reverse the long-term decline for butterflies and the 15-year Big Butterfly Count trends show that more than twice as many widespread species have declined significantly than have increased.
• The number of flying insects sampled on vehicle number plates, across the UK, has fallen by a staggering 63% since 2021, according to the Bugs Matter survey, conducted by Buglife and Kent Wildlife Trust.

The signatories of the declaration affirm that the decline of insects in the UK is driven by a combination of well-documented pressures: habitat loss and fragmentation, pesticide and chemical use, intensive farming practices, pollution, climate change, and invasive species. These factors are pushing many insect species toward extinction thresholds and undermining the resilience of ecosystems vital to human well-being.

The declaration calls for:

• Restoration and reconnection of insect-rich habitats across farmland, towns and cities, freshwater systems, and protected sites
• Legally enforced reductions in pesticide use and other pollutants
• Legal safeguards for key insect species and their habitats
• Increased investment in ecological monitoring, scientific research, and public education

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