POLLINATORS POLLINATION AND FOOD PRODUCTION

THE ASSESSMENT REPORT ON POLLINATORS, POLLINATION AND FOOD PRODUCTION
From the holistic valuation perspective, nature’s benefits
to people fit key categories of nature’s gifts to indigenous
peoples and local communities in the form of practices
of supporting diversity and fostering biocultural diversity,
in landscape management practices, diversified farming
systems, innovation and adaptation. While many practices
and ethics outside of indigenous peoples and local
communities could also be considered as nature’s gifts, the
scope of this assessment did not extend to investigating
this dimension.
The categories considered for good quality of life include
a range of values that overlap to some extent with those
that comprise nature’s benefits to people (Table 5-2). For
example, quality of life categories include the livelihoods of
indigenous peoples and local communities that derive from
relationships between ILK-holders, pollinators and pollinatordependent
products, including income, food and medicines.
While these can also be viewed as aspects of provisioning
services, and part of nature’s benefits to people, from the
perspective of ILK systems, they fit better with concepts of
good quality of life (Díaz et al., 2015). Pollinators support
numerous other categories of value that contribute to good
quality of life including heritage, aesthetics, identity, social
relations and governance attributes. These relational values
are assessed in section 5.3.
5.2.2 Provisioning ecosystem
services (socio-cultural valuation)
Provisioning services include the pollination of plants, and
the use of pollinators themselves, for food and medicine
production, pollinators’ products such as honey and
wax used in objects (e.g. fine musical instruments), and
pollinator-dependent construction materials, biofuels and
fibre (Krell, 1996; Quezada-Euán et al., 2001).
Many foods and medicines are derived from pollinators
and pollinator-dependent resources (Costa-Neto, 2005;
Cortes et al., 2011; Eilers et al., 2011; Rastogi, 2011).
Around 2,000 insect species are consumed as food
globally, including many that are pollinators such as the
larvae of beetles, moths, bees, and palm weevils, in both
developing and developed world contexts (Jongema,
2015). Insects are now being recognised as potentially
important for food security, being high in protein, vitamins
and minerals (Rumpold and Schluter, 2013; van Huis, 2013).
In Fiji, trees providing fruits for human consumption include
coconut (Cocos nucifera) and lilly-pilly (Syzygium spp.),
both pollinated by bats (Notopteris macdonaldi, Pteropus
samoensis, and Pteropus tonganus) (Scanlon et al., 2014).
Durian (Durio zibethinus), a popular and economically highreturn
fruit throughout southeast Asia, with rich bioactive
and nutraceutical properties, relies primarily on pollination
by bats (e.g. Eonycteris spelaea) (Bumrungsri et al., 2009;
Ho and Bhat, 2015) Figure 5-6. Crop plants that depend
fully or partially on animal pollinators are important sources
of vitamin C, lycopene, the antioxidants beta-cryptoxanthin
and beta-tocopherol, vitamin A and related carotenoids,
calcium and fluoride, and a large portion of folic acid
available worldwide (Eilers et al., 2011).
Bees and their products (venom, honey and wax) have
been used since Ancient Greek and Roman times in curing
everything from bladder infections to toothaches and
wound recovery (Weiss, 1947; Krell, 1996). Scientific and
technological development of bee products such as propolis
(the resin collected by honey bees from tree buds, used
by them as glue) and honey continue to yield medicinal
and pharmacological products and uses, including as
anti-diabetic agents (Banskota et al., 2001; Amudha and
Sunil, 2013; Begum et al., 2015; Jull et al., 2015). Honey
is anti-bacterial, anti-viral and anti-fungal, and all of these
properties make it ideal for healing wounds (Kumar et al.,
2010). Bee products, primarily honey, are currently used to
treat, among other illnesses, multiple sclerosis, osteoarthritis,
rheumatoid arthritis, post-herpetic neuralgia, coughs, herpes
simplex virus, premenstrual syndrome, sulcoplasty, allergic
rhinitis, hyperlipidemia, the common cold, and topically for
burns, wound healing, diabetic foot ulcers and for improving
athletic performance (Gupta and Stangaciu, 2014). Stingless
bees’ honey is widely used for medicinal purposes by
indigenous peoples and local communities, in regions where
they are distributed, as integral parts of their livelihood
systems (Massaro et al., 2011).
FIGURE 5-6
Flowers of durian, a high-value tropical fruit, and their bat
pollinator (Synconycteris australis) in north Queensland,
Australia. © Barbara & Allen at Wild Wings & Swampy Things
Nature Refuge. Reproduced with permission.
289
5. BIOCULTURAL DIVERSITY, POLLINATORS AND
THEIR SOCIO-CULTURAL VALUES