Authors: Dicks, Lynn; Cole, Lorna;Kleijn, David;Stout, Jane;Potts, Simon G.;Scheper, Jeroen;

We evaluated the potential for habitat and landscape features required under the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP; 2014-2020) to support wild insect pollinators. We used structured expert elicitation, involving 22 experts from 18 European countries. Ecological Focus Area (EFA) options were scored for their potential to provide forage, nesting sites and larval resources to key pollinating taxa (i.e. bumble bees, solitary bees and hoverflies), under both standard and pollinator-friendly management. We examined initial uptake of the EFA options in terms of land area. EFA options varied geographically and temporally in the resources they were perceived to provide. For example, field margins provide good forage throughout the season in Southern and Eastern Europe but lack early-season forage in Northern and Western Europe. Under standard management, no single EFA option scored highly across resource categories. A scarcity of late season forage was perceived. Experts identified substantial opportunities to improve habitat quality through pollinator-friendly management. Improving management alone was unlikely to ensure that all pollinator resource requirements were met. We conclude that poor management, differences in pollinator habitat quality and uptake bias towards crop-based options severely limited the support provided to pollinators by EFAs in European agricultural landscapes.