Insects are facing threat of ‘extinction’
BY EMILY BEAMENT THE global decline of insects is the “largest extinction event on Earth”, a review has warned.
The scientific study, published in the Biological Conservation journal, said the root cause of falling insect numbers – including bees and butterflies – was intensification of agriculture over the past six decades.
Experts say they are key to functioning natural systems, from providing a food source for birds, mammals and amphibians, to pollinating plants.
Researchers Francisco Sanchez-Bayo and Kris Wyckhuys said: “Unless we change our ways of producing food, insects as a whole will go down the path of extinction in a few decades.
“The repercussions this will have for the planet’s ecosystems are catastrophic to say the least.”