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International scientists formulate a roadmap for insect conservation and recovery

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 4, pages 174–176 (2020)Cite this article

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To the Editor — A growing number of studies are providing evidence that a suite of anthropogenic stressors — habitat loss and fragmentation, pollution, invasive species, climate change and overharvesting — are seriously reducing insect and other invertebrate abundance, diversity and biomass across the biosphere1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8. These declines affect all functional groups: herbivores, detritivores, parasitoids, predators and pollinators. Insects are vitally important in a wide range of ecosystem services9 of which some are vitally important for food production and security (for example, pollination and pest control)10. There is now a strong scientific consensus that the decline of insects, other arthropods and biodiversity as a whole, is a very real and serious threat that society must urgently address11,12,13. In response to the increasing public awareness of the problem, the German government is committing funds to combat and reverse declining insect numbers13. This funding should act as a clarion call to other nations across the world — especially wealthier ones — to follow suit and to respond proactively to the crisis by addressing the known and suspected threats and implementing solutions.

Taking aggressive steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; reversing recent trends in agricultural intensification including reduced application of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers and pursuing their replacement with agro-ecological measures; promoting the diversification and maintenance of locally adapted land-use techniques; increasing landscape heterogeneity through the maintenance of natural areas within the landscape matrix and ensuring the retention and creation of microhabitats within habitats which may be increasingly important for insects during extreme climatic events such as droughts or heatwaves; reducing identified local threats such as light, water or noise pollution, invasive species and so on; prioritizing the import of goods that are not produced at the cost of healthy, species-rich ecosystems; designing and deploying policies (for example, subsidies and taxation) to induce the innovation and adoption of insect-friendly technologies; enforcing stricter measures to reduce the introduction of alien species, and prioritizing nature-based tactics for their (long-term) mitigation; compiling and implementing conservation strategies for species that are vulnerable, threatened or endangered; funding educational and outreach programs, including those tailored to the needs of the wider public, farmers, land managers, decision makers and conservation professionals; enhancing ‘citizen science’ or ‘community science’ as a way of obtaining more data on insect diversity and abundance as well as engaging the public, especially in areas where academic or professional infrastructure is lacking; devising and deploying measures across agricultural and food value chains that favour insect-friendly farming, including tracking, labelling, certification and insurance schemes or outcome-based incentives that facilitate behavioural changes, and investing in capacity building to create a new generation of insect conservationists and providing knowledge and skills to existing professionals (particularly in developing countries).

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Fig. 1: Roadmap to insect conservation and recovery, calling for action at short-, intermediate- and long-term timescales.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Jeffrey A. Harvey, Robin Heinen, T. Martijn Bezemer, Louise E. M. Vet & Marcel E. Visser

  2. Departamento de Biología, Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia

    Inge Armbrecht

  3. ForestGEO, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama City, Panama

    Yves Basset

  4. Centre for Invasion Biology, Stellenbosch University, Matieland, South Africa

    James H. Baxter-Gilbert

  5. Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, London, UK

    Monika Böhm & Sérgio Henriques

  6. Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden

    Riccardo Bommarco & Tomas L. Roslin

  7. cE3c-Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes / Azorean Biodiversity Group, University of Azores, Lisbon, Portugal

    Paulo A. V. Borges & António O. Soares

  8. Laboratory for Integrative Biodiversity Research (LIBRe), Finnish Museum of Natural History, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Pedro Cardoso

  9. Senckenberg Research Institute, Goerlitz, Germany

    Viola Clausnitzer

  10. Center for Biological Diversity, Portland, OR, USA

    Tara Cornelisse & Christopher D. Nagano

  11. Department of Biology, Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA

    Elizabeth E. Crone & Sara M. Lewis

  12. Laboratory of Entomology, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Marcel Dicke & Rieta Gols

  13. IUCN SSC Freshwater Conservation Committee, Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Klaas-Douwe B. Dijkstra

  14. Biology Department, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, USA

    Lee Dyer & Mathew L. Forister

  15. Department of Ecological Sciences, Vrije University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Jacintha Ellers

  16. Department of Biodiversity and Landscape Ecology, Osnabrück University, Osnabrück, Germany

    Thomas Fartmann

  17. School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia

    Michael J. Furlong

  18. Estacion de Biología Chamela, Instituto de Biología, Chamela, Jalisco, Mexico

    Andres Garcia-Aguayo

  19. IUCN SSC Terrestrial Invertebrate Red List Authority, Cambridge, UK

    Justin Gerlach

  20. School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK

    Dave Goulson

  21. Evolutionary Zoology, Department of Biosciences, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria

    Jan-Christian Habel

  22. Kellogg Biological Station and Department of Integrative Biology, Michigan State University, Hickory Corners, MI, USA

    Nick M. Haddad

  23. Institute for Water and Wetland Research, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Caspar A. Hallmann & Hans de Kroon

  24. Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Marie E. Herberstein & Elizabeth C. Lowe

  25. Department of Biogeography, Trier University, Trier, Germany

    Axel Hochkirch & Sophie Ogan

  26. Centre for Integrative Conservation, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Yunnan, China

    Alice C. Hughes

  27. The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, Portland, OR, USA

    Sarina Jepsen

  28. School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK

    T. Hefin Jones

  29. Biotechnology Application and Research Centre, Çukurova University, Balcalı, Adana, Turkey

    Bora M. Kaydan

  30. Plant Ecology and Nature Conservation Group, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    David Kleijn

  31. Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

    Alexandra-Maria Klein

  32. School of Life and Environmental Science, Sydney Institute of Agriculture, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Tanya Latty & Thomas E. White

  33. Crop & Environment Science, Harper Adams University, Newport, UK

    Simon R. Leather

  34. Department of Biological Sciences, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, USA

    Bradford C. Lister

  35. Entomology Department, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    John E. Losey

  36. Buglife - The Invertebrate Conservation Trust, Peterborough, UK

    Craig R. Macadam

  37. Departamento de Biología, Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia

    James Montoya-Lerma

  38. Key Laboratory for Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Michael C. Orr

  39. School of Science, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

    Christina J. Painting

  40. Vietnam National Museum of Nature & Graduate School of Science and Technology, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, Hanoi, Vietnam

    Thai-Hong Pham

  41. Centre for Agri-Environmental Research, School of Agriculture, Policy and Development, Reading University, Reading, UK

    Simon G. Potts

  42. Department of Plant Protection, IPB University, Bogor, Indonesia

    Aunu Rauf

  43. Department of Conservation Ecology and Entomology, Stellenbosch University, Matieland, South Africa

    Michael J. Samways

  44. Department of Environment and Energy, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

    Francisco Sanchez-Bayo

  45. National Agricultural Research Institute, Lae, Papua New Guinea

    Sim A. Sar

  46. School of Biological Sciences, Washington State University, Vancouver, British Columbia, USA

    Cheryl B. Schultz

  47. Department of Entomology, Faculty of Agriculture, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand

    Anchana Thancharoen

  48. Agroecology, Department of Crop Sciences, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany

    Teja Tscharntke

  49. Bio-protection Centre, School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

    Jason M. Tylianakis

  50. School of Science and Health, Western Sydney University, Penrith, New South Wales, Australia

    Kate D. L. Umbers

  51. Department of Biology and Ecology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia

    Ante Vujic

  52. Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA

    David L. Wagner

  53. De Vlinderstichting (Dutch Butterfly Conservation) & Plant Ecology and Nature Conservation Group, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Michiel F. WallisDeVries

  54. Functional Agrobiodiversity, Department of Crop Sciences, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany

    Catrin Westphal

  55. IUCN SSC Mid Atlantic Island Invertebrate Specialist Group, IUCN, Cambridge, UK

    Vicky L. Wilkins

  56. Natural History Museum, London, UK

    Paul H. Williams

  57. Chrysalis Consulting, Hanoi, Vietnam

    Kris A. G. Wyckhuys

  58. Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Crop Insect Pests and Diseases, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China

    Zeng-Rong Zhu

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  1. Jeffrey A. Harvey
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Correspondence to Jeffrey A. Harvey.

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Harvey, J.A., Heinen, R., Armbrecht, I. et al. International scientists formulate a roadmap for insect conservation and recovery. Nat Ecol Evol 4, 174–176 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-1079-8

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