De Dea fan Ynsekten: Wat in Delgong fan 75% Werklik Betsjut
May 27, 2026 · Frisian News
Biomass studies show insect populations have crashed by three quarters since the 1970s, but the science behind the headlines matters more than the shock value. We examined what researchers actually measured and what they did not.
FryskIn team fan Dútske ûndersikers publisearre yn 2017 útkomsten dy't alarm stjoerden troch de miljeupers: de ynsektenmassa yn beskerme natuerreservaten wie yn mar fjouwer desennia mei 75 prosint sakke. De bewearing ferspraat him gau. Sjoernalisten grepen it getal op. Stiftingen finansierden nije stúdzjes om de trend te befêstigjen. Mar sjoch naukeuriger nei wat de gegevens werklik toane, en it byld wurdt minder dúdlik.
De oarspronklike stúdzje folge ynsekten yn njoggen beskerme gebieten yn West-Dútslân mei netten dy't jier nei jier op deselde plakken set waarden. De ûndersikers maten totale biomassa, net oantallen fan soarten. Dit is wichtich omdat in pear grutte ynsekten like folle wege kinne as hûnderten lytse. As in reservaat flinters en kevers ferlear mar sprinkhoanen behold, soene de biomassa-oantallen noch altyd sterk sakje. De stúdzje fertelde ús neat oer oft bepaalde soarten ferdwûn wiene, allinich dat eat lichter waard. De ûndersikers sels stelden dat hja net wisten hokker ynsekten ferdwûnen of wêrom.
Wat de stúdzje net mat is like wichtich as wat it wol die. It omfette njoggen lokaasjes, allegear yn West-Dútslân, allegear yn beskerme gebieten, allegear yn de simmermoannen ûndersocht. De útkomsten kinne net útbreid wurde ta de bewearing dat ynsekten oeral stoarnen, of dat de hiele wrâld ynstoart. Dochs diene mediakanalen en miljeugroepen krekt dat. Hja namen in lokale, beheinde meting en draaiden dy om yn in wrâldwiid apokalysferhaal. Stiftingen jouwe no miljoenen út foar it bestriden fan in ynsektenramp, foar in part op basis fan ûndersyk dat nea sa'n bewearing die.
De echte problemen mei ynsekten besteane wol. Monokultuerlânbou, pestisiden en ferlies fan habitat hawwe earne populaasjes beskeadige. Mar wy witte minder oer wêr, hoefolle en wat wy dêroan dwaan kinne as de koppen suggerearje. De measte ynsektensoarten binne noch net teld. Wy kinne in delgong net folgje yn eat dat wy nea teld hawwe. It alarmisme ferdriuwt it dreger wurk fan begripe wat werklik op it lân bart, fjild foar fjild, regio foar regio.
It getal fan 75 prosint waard in wapen yn hannen fan minsken dy't belied trochdrukke woene sûnder op better bewiis te wachtsjen. It ferkocht tydskriften en brocht jild nei ûndersikers. Mar it loste it echte probleem net op. Lytse boeren dy't har lân kenne, dy't ynsekten yn simmer en winter sjogge, dy't mei grûn wurkje ynstee fan gemikaliën, dizze minsken witte faak mear as de wittenskippers dy't nei de Dútske stúdzje ferwize. Harkje earst nei harren. Beslút dan wat feroarje moat.
A team of German researchers published findings in 2017 that sent alarm through the environmental press: insect biomass in protected nature reserves had fallen 75 percent in just four decades. The claim spread fast. Journalists ran with the number. Foundations funded new studies to confirm the trend. But look closer at what the data actually showed, and the picture becomes less clear.
The original study tracked insects in nine protected areas in western Germany using nets set in the same spots year after year. The researchers measured total biomass, not species count. This matters because a few large insects can weigh as much as hundreds of small ones. If a reserve lost butterflies and beetles but kept grasshoppers, biomass numbers would still fall sharply. The study told us nothing about whether certain species vanished, only that something got lighter. The researchers themselves noted they did not know which insects disappeared or why.
What the study did not measure matters as much as what it did. It covered nine sites, all in western Germany, all in protected areas, all sampled in summer months only. The findings cannot be stretched to claim insects died everywhere, or that the whole world faces collapse. Yet media outlets and environmental groups did exactly that. They took a local, limited measurement and spun it into a global doomsday story. Foundations now spend millions fighting an insect apocalypse based partly on research that never claimed such a thing.
The real problems with insects do exist. Monoculture farming, pesticides, and habitat loss have hurt populations in some places. But we know less about where, how much, and what to do about it than the headlines suggest. Most insect species remain uncounted. We cannot track a decline in something we never counted to begin with. The alarmism crowds out the harder work of understanding what actually happens on the ground, field by field, region by region.
The 75 percent number became a weapon in the hands of people who wanted to push policies without waiting for better evidence. It sold magazines and brought money to researchers. But it did not solve the real problem. Small farmers who know their land, who see insects in summer and winter, who work with the soil rather than chemicals, these people often know more than the scientists citing the German study. Listen to them first. Then decide what must change.
Published May 27, 2026 · Frisian News · Ljouwert, Fryslân