The APOLO project is an ambitious initiative to act and raise awareness of the problems posed by the progressive disappearance of the biological agents responsible for carrying out a fundamental process for the maintenance of life on Earth, pollination.

The APOLO project is an ambitious initiative to act and raise awareness of the problems posed by the progressive disappearance of the biological agents responsible for carrying out a fundamental process for the maintenance of life on Earth, pollination.

The causes of the decline in the populations of these pollinating agents, mostly insects, are directly or indirectly related to human activity. There are two types of pollinators: domestic pollinators such as the honey bee, which survives thanks to the care of beekeepers, and the rest of wild pollinators.

The project seeks to encourage society to reflect on what biodiversity is and why it is necessary to preserve it, disseminating the important role played by pollinators, both wild and domestic, for the conservation of terrestrial ecosystems.

The specific objectives are:

1. To establish a coordinated network of Spanish centres and institutions involved in the dissemination of the importance of pollinators.
2. To compile the available information on plant-pollinator interactions in Spain and their implications, and to prepare a synthesis report that includes a first list or ranking of the main pollinating agents, both of wild flora and crops.
3. Instill in society in general, and in young people in particular, respect for nature and, specifically, for pollinators.
4. To promote traditional beekeeping as a complementary activity to agriculture and livestock, as well as a tool to promote sustainable rural development.

Within the scientific-technical part of the project, the National Observatory of Pollinating Agents (APOLO) will be created, an interactive virtual platform that will initially be put into operation by staff from the Spanish Association of Entomology, the Atlantic Botanical Garden and CIBIO (Inter-American Center for Biodiversity, Research Institute of the University of Alicante).

The observatory will operate mainly in a network, through the respective websites of the three bodies. A network in which it will try to involve all those researchers, technicians and specialists from the different fields and professions directly or indirectly related to pollinators and their activity in the natural environment.

On the other hand, the observatory will announce the I POL-INNOVA Award, where participants will be able to present observations, studies or viable and original proposals that contribute to the conservation of pollinating agents and the species that depend on them, both plants and animals (at national, regional or even local scale).

The project also includes activities in the training and educational field, from the development of the course “Insects, key pieces for the conservation of biodiversity”, of a fundamentally practical nature, to the preparation of various didactic documentation, brochures, leaflets and posters on the importance of pollination. A traveling exhibition will also be prepared, under the title “Pollinators and Biodiversity”, and a photography contest, whose theme will be the pollination of plants, among other actions.