Save Our Wild Isles Community Fund has provided £8,159 of match funding
Growing the insect super highways
Peterborough, United Kingdom
Aim
To grow the mapped B-Lines network across the UK by enabling Buglife to build on the ground partnerships of landowners and funders.
B-Lines
Imagine trying to travel around the UK without our road and rail network. Or imagine if nine out of every ten miles of road just didn’t exist – life would be impossible! That is the situation faced by our vital pollinators and other bugs. B-Lines is Buglife’s unique solution.
Why do we need action?
Our bees, butterflies and hoverflies have suffered badly over the last fifty or so years, due to changes in land use as a result of modern farming methods, urban spread and new transport links. Over 97% (an area the size of Wales) of all flower-rich grasslands have been lost in England since the 1930s, reducing pollen and nectar sources and leading to a serious decline in the wildlife depending on wildflower-rich habitat.
What are B-Lines?
B-Lines are an imaginative and beautiful solution to the problem of the loss of flowers and pollinators. The B-Lines are a series of ‘insect super highways’ running through our countryside and towns, along which we are restoring and creating a series of wildflower-rich habitat stepping stones. They link existing wildlife areas together, creating a network that will weave across the UK landscape. This will provide large areas of brand new habitat benefiting bees and butterflies– but also a host of other wildlife.
Making B-Lines
B-Lines aims to create and restore at least 150,000 hectares of flower-rich habitat across the UK.
Making this happen will take time and will need farmers, land owners, wildlife organisations, businesses, local authorities and the general public to work together to create flower-rich grassland in the best locations.
B-Lines have been mapped across England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. Along with conservation partners, land managers, businesses and local authorities, we are helping to fill the mapped areas with restored and new wildflower-rich areas.
Where your Donation Goes
Your donation will support the creation and delivery of new partnerships delivering the B-Lines; every £1,000 donated will enable the delivery of at least one hectare of new pollinator habitat.
Aviva Community Fund has provided £2,659 of match funding
This project successfully funded on 11th May 2023