POLLINATORS POLLINATION AND FOOD PRODUCTION

THE ASSESSMENT REPORT ON POLLINATORS, POLLINATION AND FOOD PRODUCTION
crop price from any individual asset are likely to be small
resulting in little to no welfare loss. At a basic level, yield
analysis can be used in conjunction with regression analysis
to estimate the benefits of pollinator capital from habitats
at different distances to the crop (e.g., Olschewski et al.,
2006). However, detailed production function models
(Section 2.2.3) are ideal as they can produce estimates
that more accurately represent the quality of services
produced from particular habitat patches (e.g., Ricketts and
Lonsdorf, 2013). Furthermore, they can also examine the
substitution patterns between pollination and other capital
inputs. However, the highly specific nature of these models
makes it unlikely that they can be widely employed at
present, necessitating a focus on using biophysical units of
pollinator capital.
Unlike other measures of pollination value, quantifications
of pollinator stocks should account for potential as well
as realized pollination services as assets may not always
be able to provide services. For example, if arable farmers
within the landscape around a source of pollinator capital
(Figure 4.3) regularly rotate their production between
pollinated and non-pollinated crops, the assets will still
have value as stocks of pollination even in years where no
pollinated crops are grown as they still have the potential to
contribute to crop production.
TABLE 4.3
Summary of methods to assess the economic consequences of pollinator gains and losses
2.6.4 Pollinators influence on other assets
In addition to the flow of pollination service benefits,
pollinators can also contribute to the production and
maintenance of other capital assets (Table 4.3). Foremost
by contributing to the propagation of plants that provide
other ecosystem services (Isbell et al., 2011; Ollerton et al.,
2011), pollination has a direct influence on the quantity and
integrity of a range of other natural capital assets. These
plants can in turn affect wider biodiversity (e.g., insect
pollinated hawthorn berries which are inedible to humans
but which provide winter feed for many birds; Jacobs et al.,
2009). By influencing crop productivity, pollination services
can also influence the flow of available nutrients within
the human diets. This can have an impact on the asset of
human health (Nelson et al., 2010) by causing additional
disability and death (Smith et al., 2015), which in turn
affects the availability of labour within the market. The link
between pollinators and human health capital is discussed
in terms of disability-adjusted life years below. In many local
communities, unique beekeeping knowledge is a form of
social capital, helping to support diversified farming incomes
and providing a source of honey and other hive products
(e.g., Park and Youn, 2012; see Chapter 5 for several
case studies of applied indigenous and local beekeeping
knowledge). Finally, by affecting profits from the sale of
pollinator-dependent crops, pollinators can potentially affect
financial assets such as debt or equity among producers
Capital Asset Measure Potential impacts of pollinator gains and losses
Crop price
Managed
pollinator
prices
Yield
analysis
Dependence
ratios
Stated
preferences
Managed
pollinator stocks
Equity and debt
Wild Pollinators
Biodiversity
Labor (for
providing
services)
Labor
(benefitting from
services)
Beekeeping
knowledge
Number of honeybee colonies, bumblebee
colonies or absolute numbers of other
managed pollinators
Monetary measures of equity and debt
associated with beekeepers and producers
of insect pollinated crops.
Estimates of wild pollinator population or
likely populations based on suitability using
e.g. InVEST models (Lonsdorf et al., 2009)
Area and population of plants affected by
pollination.
Available number of beekeepers and other
professionals able to provide managed
pollination services.
Available labor within the workforce lost
through malnutrition associated with a lack
of pollinator dependent crops.
Number of local beekeepers with
indigenous and local beekeeping
knowledge
Reduced availability of economically valuable pollination
services, particularly if wild pollination services are also
unavailable (Breeze et al., 2014; Southwick and Southwick.
1992)
Impacts on profits can affect available financial capital for
future investment and expansion, influencing their welfare
over the long term (not yet observed for pollination services
but see e.g. Lawes and Kingwell, 2012)
Reduced availability of economically valuable pollination
services, particularly if managed pollination services are also
unavailable (Garibaldi et al., 2013)
Reduced levels of pollination can potentially affect plant
species diversity (Ollerton et al., 2011) and wider biodiversity
which relies on pollinated plants (e.g. Jacobs et al, 2009)
Increasing losses of managed honeybees may push
beekeepers out of business if expenses from replacing
lost colonies become too severe. This in turn may affect
the number of beekeepers available to supply pollination
services and produce hive products, even if those that do
remain have a large number of colonies each (Potts et al.,
2010).
Losses of pollination services may cause a decline in the
availability of nutrients in the food chain, increasing disease
and mortality (Smith et al., 2015); in turn potentially affecting
the availability of labor within the work force.
Pollinator losses may cause a decrease in the number of
beekeepers and with this the knowledge and skills required
to effectively manage honeybees to provide pollination
services and produce hive products (e.g. Park and Yuon,
2012).
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4. ECONOMIC VALUATION OF POLLINATOR GAINS
AND LOSSES