After challenging weather last year hampered efforts to reintroduce a species of bumblebee, which had become extinct in Britain, insect experts made a second attempt to release bees in Kent on Monday (3rd June).

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Conservationists released several queen bees collected from farmland in Southern Sweden at the RSPB Dungeness reserve. The project, backed by Natural England, RSPB and the Bumblebee Conservation Trust began last year with an initial pilot reintroduction, which followed four years of work with local farmers to create the ideal wildflower habitat for bumblebees across Romney Marsh and Dungeness.

The reintroduction aims to provide a foothold for short-haired bumblebees, which were last seen in the UK 25 years ago. The last confirmed sighting of the bee was in Kent in 1988. Of the 25 species of bumblebee native to the UK, seven are declining and two are extinct - one of which is the short-haired bumblebee.

The recent State of Nature report, published by 25 leading conservation groups, highlighted the short-haired bumblebee project as a beacon of hope for bee populations in the UK. The report found that insects as a whole are one of the hardest hit species groups in the UK. A larger proportion of insects are declining compared with other species groups. 

Project manager Dr Nikki Gammans explained the importance of the reintroduction, "Bumblebees are an intrinsic part of the British countryside, but some species are disappearing before our eyes. Bringing this extinct species back to the UK shows what can be done for wildlife by working together. The queens we released last year have had a very tough time with the weather last summer, so it was vital that we return to Sweden and bring back more queens to bolster the colony at Dungeness."

She admitted that due to dull, damp weather, the first year of the project had been gruelling, but said there are reasons to be hopeful. Dr Gammans continued, "There's a lot more work to be done but thanks to the local farmers in this area of Kent and East Sussex, our friends in Sweden, a crack team of volunteers and the wildlife experts involved in the project, there is hope for all our threatened bumblebees."

Short-haired bumblebees (Bombus subterraneus) were once was once widespread across the south of the British Isles, ranging from Cornwall to Yorkshire. But as wildflower-rich grasslands, the bees' habitat, were destroyed towards the end of the Twentieth Century, numbers dwindled and the bee was declared extinct in the UK in 2000.

The groups behind the reintroduction programme have claimed it as a success, despite the hurdles encountered last year. Farmers in the area have played a vital part in the project, through creating pollen and nectar rich flower margins and rotational grazing. They have also helped create corridors of suitable habitat linking farmland and nature reserves in the area, allowing bees to spread out.

In addition to supporting the short-haired bumblebee, other vital insects, including five threatened species of bee, have all increased their geographic range in the area since work on the project was begun. England's rarest bumblebee, the shrill carder bee, is one species that has seen a reversal of declining numbers.

However overall, bee populations are still struggling as the insects face a multitude of hardships, including disease, habitat loss, and potentially the effects of certain pesticides. Britain has lost 97 percent of its flowering meadows in the last 60 years, which traditionally supported a wide range of insect, plant and animal life.  

This is of major concern to conservationists and scientists because bees are a vital pollinator. Although in 2001 Defra's National Ecosystem Assessment report estimated that insect pollination is worth £430 million a year to UK agriculture, more recently, a Friends of the Earth report upped the value to £510 million.