Pollinator Power Network presents ANTENNA

In one of the latest Pollinator Power Network newsletters in May 2024, the Biodiversa+ ANTENNA project was featured.

The newsletter topic for May was Pollinator Project Success Stories and each newsletter highlighted different projects supporting pollinators. One of them presented ANTENNA, giving an overview of the main goal and the five core objectives the project seeks to achieve:

1. advance automated sample sorting and image recognition tools from individual prototypes to systems adoptable by practitioners, through a co-design approach;

2. expand pollinator monitoring to under-researched pollinator taxa, ecosystems, and pressures;

3. quantify the added value of a broad range of novel monitoring systems in comparison and combination with ‘traditional’ methods in terms of information gains related to economic costs;

4. provide a framework for integrative monitoring by combining multiple data streams and for developing routines for near real-time forecasting models as bases for early warning systems;

5. upscale from local demonstrations to the implementation of large-scale transnational pipelines and provide context-specific guidance for the choice and combination of monitoring methods and indicators for policy and end-users.

The newsletter also highlighted the Safeguard project, which focuses on wild pollinator decline and biodiversity. It aims to understand decline drivers and deliver an integrated assessment framework by 2025, including the creation of the Safeguard Knowledge Exchange Hub.

Both projects align with European sustainability efforts and underscore the importance of monitoring and protecting pollinator populations to ensure ecosystem sustainability. 

As a project aiming to fill key monitoring gaps that will complement EU-wide pollinator monitoring schemes and support pollinator-relevant policy and end-users, ANTENNA intends to join efforts with networks and projects focused on pollinators. Such collaborations are key to enhancing biodiversity monitoring and supporting informed policy-making through advanced technologies and thorough risk assessments.

Pollinator Power Network (PPN) was founded by Liah, an ecologist with a deep passion for pollinators, back in 2023. The initiative was born with the idea to empower and inspire others to raise awareness and make a significant environmental impact. The main goal is spreading awareness of the instrumental role pollinators play in our ecosystems, shedding light on the serious declines they face (with profound impacts on our planet's plants and animals), and empowering people to create and conserve pollinator habitat as part of a grassroots network of gardeners.

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