UK Nature and Environment

A surge in volunteer participation has bolstered the UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme (PoMS) over the past year.

The scheme’s annual report, published during Volunteers Week, shows that in 2023, a total of 4,340 ‘Flower-Insect Timed Counts’ (FIT Counts) were submitted by dedicated nature lovers, surpassing the previous year’s total of 3,730.

Each FIT Count involves ten minutes of careful observation, during which volunteers document every insect landing on a patch of flowers. These efforts play an important role in gathering data on the abundance of pollinating insects.

PoMS also expanded its systematic 1 km survey, which now encompasses 92 sites surveyed by trained volunteers across the UK – up from 72 sites in its inaugural year, 2017. Remarkably, these surveys have identified more than 260 species of bees and hoverflies, representing nearly half of the known species within these insect groups in the UK.