Urban Planning, Ecological Transition, Urban Services and Housing

Pollinating insects are very important in the preservation of plants and crops and a key factor in the future of the planet Based on its experience naturalising the city of Barcelona, the Municipal Institute of Parks and Gardens is participating in a plan to conserve them in Catalonia.

The Biodiversity Programme of the Municipal Institute of Parks and Gardens is participating in the drafting the Inter-sectoral Plan to Conserve Wild Pollinators in Catalonia (or ‘PIPOL’)

Led by the Department for Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda of the Government of Catalonia, this plan was instigated to direct, coordinate and disseminate the actions of both the public administration and private stakeholders aimed at conserving wild pollinators.

The plan is a tool to apply the determinations that the European Union has established regarding pollinators in Catalonia, with the goal of ensuring their conservation as key insects in the future of the planet and the conservation of the ecosystem services of pollination.

The Plan’s specific goals and measures have their sights set on 2030. It focuses on co-creation with the participation of different sectors involved in conserving wild pollinators, such as local public administrations, managers of agrarian and forest landscapes, companies associated with the production of phytosanitary products, research centres and universities, conservation organisations and the beekeeping sector, among others.

Parks and Gardens is participating in this process by contributing its experience in the field of naturalising the city within a specific working group that aims to work on objectives and measures in the urban and periurban areas.

Another goal is to get all citizens involved in the development of the plan and convey to them simply and clearly the importance of wild pollinators, pollination and the purposes of the PIPOL, as well as to get important stakeholders in their conservation involved. Thus, until December 2023, the Plan is currently in a participation process open to anyone interested in taking part.

In 2023, The Government of Catalonia published a report which showed the overall decline of these insects and the need to act strategically to reverse this trend.

Both the report and the PIPOL propose six priority action areas: improving knowledge of pollinators, protected natural spaces and natural habitats, the agrarian productive environment, the urban and periurban environment and infrastructures, phytosanitary products and the governance and involvement of society.