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Thousands of children in the Bailiwick will take part in an education initiative run by the Pollinator Project to learn more about the role of moths in pollination.
This year the initiative, which is supported by Mourant, focuses on 20 insects in the Lepidoptera order - moths.
The Pollinator Project team is giving every Bailiwick primary school child the chance to hear a talk, take part in interactive tasks and receive moth identification packs including take-home leaflets and classroom posters. This is part of an annual schools campaign aimed at age 5 to 10 which reaches more than 4,000 pupils from 21 schools across Guernsey, as well as home-schooled children.
As part of the initiative, children can enter the ‘Create A Moth’ competition, getting creative on an activity sheet, designed by Guernsey Arts.
Every child that submits their art for the competition will be given a packet of pesticide-free, non-invasive seeds to sow their own ‘pollinator-friendly flower mix’ in their garden or planter at home. The aim is to encourage children and their families to increase the population of beneficial insects. Children can also watch the plants grow into food sources for the insects they learn about in school.
Three children can go on to win a prize for their school, either £500, £750 or £100 worth of vouchers for GROW Ltd so that they can create or expand their own pollinator patch.
The winning entrants will also receive individual prizes – a personalised t-shirt of their moth design, a framed copy of their artwork, and a voucher for the environmental website NHBS worth £100, £75, and £50.
Pollinator Project’s co-founder Barry (the bug man) Wells explains: “Our popular pollinator education campaign, which started five years ago teaching children about bees, then butterflies, bugs and beetles will focus on 20 of the 1300 moths in Guernsey. Moths are really important pollinators, but are often overlooked or misunderstood. Guernsey has lots of fascinatingly varied moth including the hovering long-tongued Hummingbird Hawk Moth, the black and red 5-spot Burnet often found on Lihou or L’Ancresse common, and the stripey Jersey Tiger moth – which was believed to be first found in Guernsey! We’ll be showing thousands of children how many moth species gather pollen and nectar by the light of the moon, and supplement the work of day-time pollinators. And as moths can be strong flyers, how they play an important role in the long-distance transfer of pollen.”
“Children who first learned about bumblebees in year 3 will now be in year 7, so have increased their knowledge of many pollinators over the years. We’d like to thank Mourant for supporting this awareness campaign by funding the design and print of the identification guides and classroom posters and purchasing the pollinator-friendly seeds.”
Partner and member of the Mourant Global Environment and Sustainability Network, John Rochester, said: "We are delighted to be supporting the Pollinator Project for another year. Environmental sustainability is a key strategic imperative for our firm, and championing important local education initiatives such as the Pollinator Project feeds into this. I'm looking forward to seeing how the project will engage children to learn about the role of moths in pollination and help them to understand why this is such an important step in maintaining a healthy ecosystem in our Bailiwick."
