POLLINATORS POLLINATION AND FOOD PRODUCTION

THE ASSESSMENT REPORT ON POLLINATORS, POLLINATION AND FOOD PRODUCTION
CHAPTER 4
ECONOMIC VALUATION OF
POLLINATOR GAINS AND LOSSES
208
4. ECONOMIC VALUATION OF POLLINATOR GAINS
AND LOSSES
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Pollinators provide a wide range of benefits to humans, such
as securing a reliable and diverse seed and fruit supply,
underpinning wider biodiversity and ecosystem function,
producing honey and other outputs from beekeeping,
and supporting cultural values. These benefits can
be expressed in economic terms to quantify the
consequences of gains and losses in pollinator
abundance and diversity to human wellbeing (well
established) (4.1, 4.2, 4.9).
Current markets and economic indicators (e.g., Gross
Domestic Product) fail to capture the full range of
benefits from pollinator abundance and diversity (well
established) (4.1.1.), and the full costs of supporting
managed pollinators (unresolved) (4.1.1). Given that
many decisions about land use are based on markets
and economic indicators, such failures can result in the
loss of pollinator-mediated benefits and sub-optimal land
management decisions from a social perspective (well
established). Indeed, declines in pollinator abundance and
diversity have altered the benefits they provide to humans
(established but incomplete) (4.1, 4.2).
Economic valuation of such pollinator-derived benefits
provides information to undertake corrective actions
on these market and economic indicator failures
(unresolved). Each time we make a decision affecting
natural or semi-natural habitats there is an implicit (i.e. not
informed) valuation of them, involving trade-offs with other
land-use decisions. Therefore, humans are always valuing
nature’s benefits, either directly or implicitly. Economic
valuation is a process in which these values are made
explicit by using well-informed methodologies and justified
criteria. Explicit values provide information to land managers
(e.g., farmers), related industrial sectors (e.g., pesticides,
supply providers), consumers, general public, and policy
makers to modify land use choices or other public policies
with greater consideration of pollinator biodiversity and
sustainability (4.1.1, 4.2, 4.6).
The economic consequences of pollinator gains and
losses are multidimensional, affecting the production
and distribution of scarce goods and services,
including production factors (e.g., human, financial
and natural assets) (unresolved). According to the IPBES
conceptual framework, value is defined as: “In keeping with
the general anthropocentric notion of “nature’s benefits to
people”, one might consider a benefit to be ecosystems’
contribution to some aspect of people’s good quality of
life, where a benefit is a perceived thing or experience of
value”. The impacts of pollinator gains and losses can be
valued in both non-monetary and monetary terms. Nonmonetary
indices, such as crop production and nutritional
quality enhanced by pollination services, can be of great
interest (4.2.6). Within monetary terms, economic methods
can measure both market values, when goods or services
traded in economic markets (e.g., crop production) (4.2.2,
4.2.3, 4.2.4, 4.2.5), and non-market values, when relating
to benefits not directly traded on markets (e.g., supporting
aesthetic wild flower diversity) (4.2.6).
Economic valuation can measure use values, such as crop
production from insect pollination, and non-use values, such
as the values people place on the existence of pollinators.
Valuation can be aggregate, examining the combined value
of all pollinators within a region, or marginal, examining the
change in value given a certain (non-total) gain or loss of
pollinators. Marginal values are relevant for decision making
because partial increases and decreases in pollinator
abundance and diversity are more likely than complete loss,
and because decisions concern marginal changes (4.1).
The annual market value of additional crop production
directly linked with pollination services is estimated
at $235bn-$577bn (in 2015 US$) worldwide (Table 4.8,
Section 4.4.3) (established but incomplete). In addition,
in the absence of animal pollination, changes in global crop
supplies could increase prices to consumers and reduce
profits to producers, resulting in a potential annual net loss
of economic welfare of $160 billion-$191 billion globally
to crop consumers and producers and a further $207
billion-$497 billion to producers and consumers in other,
non-crop markets (e.g., non-crop agriculture, forestry and
food processing) (4.7.4, Table 4.10, Section 7).
In addition to crop production, pollinators provide a
full range of non-monetary benefits to the economy,
particularly to the assets that form the basis of
rural economies (established but incomplete). For
example, human (e.g., employments in beekeeping), social
(e.g., beekeepers associations), physical (e.g., honey bee