A CAMPAIGN to help save bees by creating wildflower corridors on the South Downs has smashed its £75,000 target.

In just over a year, community groups, businesses organisations and individuals have raised the incredible amount to help farmers and landowners create wildflower corridors – essentially a ‘road system’ for insects – that will link fragmented habitats and encourage pollination.

Now the South Downs National Park Trust, the parks independent charity, is to help restore pollinators – such as bees and butterflies – that have dramatically declined in recent years.

National park countryside and policy manager Nick Heasman said: “The Bee Lines fundraising has been an incredible effort and I’d like to thank everyone who made it possible.

“It’s been a particularly testing time recently.

“I think this support underlines the recognition of the increasingly-important role this haven will have in tackling climate change and biodiversity loss.”

Chalk grassland wildflowers are the perfect habitat for pollinators and were once very extensive across the South Downs. But human impact has seen this habitat reduced to fragmented areas that make it harder for pollinators to move through the landscape.

Nick added: “Bees pollinate a third of food crops and 90 per cent of wild plants.

“But they have been in trouble for years and this will help them recover and become more resilient to human impact and the effects of climate change.

“We’re now excited to be able to start making the Downs an even bigger and better hub for pollinators.”

For details visit the website www.southdownstrust.org.uk/beelines