Since the 1940's about 97% of the 70k km² of wild flower-rich land in the UK has been lost to agriculture (mainly) and development (to a lesser extent). This has seriously endangered many of our insect pollinators (it has been predicted that 40-70% of insect species could be driven to extinction, primarily by habitat fragmentation). The organisation, Buglife, is consequently collaborating with many national and local agencies (including the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in England) to design and create a network of interconnected corridors or 'B-lines' (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/12/making-a-beeline-wildflower-paths-across-uk-could-save-species). The corridors (they are presumably not allowed to call them 'Beelines' for copyright reasons?), would be 3 km wide, flower-rich channels that cover some 48k km² in England (with more planned for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales). The hope is that (besides being an amenity in their own right), the B-lines, if properly maintained (it's not just a question of planting), would help us to keep our insect diversity in the UK.
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