European Red List of Bees

Table of contents
Foreword................................................................................................................................................................... iv
Acknowledgements.................................................................................................................................................... v
Executive summary................................................................................................................................................. viii
1. Background...........................................................................................................................................................1
1.1 The European context...................................................................................................................................1
1.2 European bees: diversity and endemism........................................................................................................2
1.3 Bee ecology...................................................................................................................................................3
1.4 Importance of bees in pollination.................................................................................................................6
1.5 Assessment of species extinction risk ............................................................................................................6
1.6 Objectives of the assessment.........................................................................................................................7
2. Assessment methodology.......................................................................................................................................8
2.1 Geographic scope..........................................................................................................................................8
2.2 Taxonomic scope .........................................................................................................................................8
2.3 Assessment protocol......................................................................................................................................8
2.4. Species mapping ..........................................................................................................................................8
3. Results..................................................................................................................................................................10
3.1 Threat status...............................................................................................................................................10
3.2 Status by taxonomic group .........................................................................................................................13
3.3 Spatial distribution of species......................................................................................................................18
3.4 Major threats to bees in Europe .................................................................................................................21
3.5 Population trends........................................................................................................................................23
3.6 Gaps in knowledge ....................................................................................................................................25
4. Conservation measures........................................................................................................................................26
4.1 Biodiversity protection in Europe and the EU.............................................................................................26
4.2 Conservation of bee species in the EU .......................................................................................................26
4.3 Conservation of bee species at the national level.........................................................................................27
4.4 Extinction risk versus conservation status....................................................................................................28
4.5 Red List versus priority for conservation action...........................................................................................29
5. Recommendations ..............................................................................................................................................30
5.1 Policy recommendations.............................................................................................................................30
5.2 Application of project outputs ...................................................................................................................31
5.3 Future work ...............................................................................................................................................31
References................................................................................................................................................................33
Appendix 1. Red List status of European bees........................................................................................................42
Appendix 2. Example of species summary and distribution map..........................................................................78
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