By the time farmers see curling leaves or stunted growth in their fields, their crops may already have spent days under stress. A new innovation in plant “wearable” sensors aims to catch those distress signals earlier—before the plant visibly suffers, allowing farmers to respond and help their crops thrive.

Europe faces a growing pollinator crisis that could threaten food security, biodiversity and a range of ecosystem services if current trends continue. A new white paper, produced by 135 researchers from eight EU-funded research consortia, presents 15 science-based recommendations to halt and reverse the decline of wild pollinators.

The report highlights that pollinators, including bees, butterflies and hoverflies, are essential not only for agricultural production but also for sectors ranging from medicine and textiles to tourism and cultural heritage. However, efforts to protect them are often undermined by fragmented policymaking, with responsibility spread across agriculture, environment, chemicals regulation, trade and finance.

The researchers call for pollinator protection to become a clear and measurable priority across policy areas. They also emphasize the need to address the underlying drivers of biodiversity loss, improve knowledge transfer between science and practice, and strengthen education on ecosystems and pollinators across disciplines.

The white paper builds on the latest scientific evidence gathered through eight EU-funded projects, including BUTTERFLY, RestPoll, ProPollSoil and PolinERA, and provides a roadmap for policymakers, practitioners and stakeholders seeking to safeguard Europe's pollinators and the benefits they provide to society.

Researchers from Aarhus University’s Department of Agroecology contributed to the report, including Claus Rasmussen, Martin Hvarregaard Thorsøe, James Williams, Johan Axelman and Chris Topping.

White paper: https://zenodo.org/records/20715670