POLLINATORS POLLINATION AND FOOD PRODUCTION

THE ASSESSMENT REPORT ON POLLINATORS, POLLINATION AND FOOD PRODUCTION
2). Appropriate methods and costs of a global monitoring
scheme have been discussed (Lebuhn et al., 2013) and
the UK Government is currently funding research to design
a cost-effective pollinator monitoring programme for the
UK, as part of the National Pollinator Strategy for England
(Defra, 2014).
Citizen science projects to monitor pollinator populations
have been established in many regions. We have gathered
some prominent examples in Table 6.4.6.3.
abundance of wild bees, for example. Such data could
potentially be used as proxies to track trends in pollination,
or ecosystem health (Munoz-Erickson et al., 2007) as
required by policy makers, although their correlations with
actual pollination or measures of ecosystem resilience are
untested. In Kremen et al.’s study, the citizens missed over
half the groups of bees collected. The authors concluded
that citizen science data collected by inexperienced
members of the public could not reliably reflect patterns in
occurrence of specific pollinator species or groups.
As an indication of the scale of citizen science activity for
pollinators, the Xerces Society (USA) provides a catalogue of
15 pollinator citizen-science projects in the US (http://www.
xerces.org/citizen-science/pollinator-citizen-science/). A
database of biodiversity monitoring projects across Europe
collected by the EU MON project (http://eumon.ckff.si/
index1.php; accessed 22 October 2014) lists 34 different
butterfly, moth or wild bee monitoring schemes involving
volunteers, in 18 different European countries. Most of these
monitor butterflies (30 of the 34 schemes), ranging from
single species (Maculinea rebeli) annual egg counts on a few
sites by a single volunteer in Italy, to 2000 volunteers doing
standardised weekly transect counts of 64 species at 1,200
sites in the UK.
Kremen et al. (2011) tested the quality of citizen-science
data by comparing the results of flower visitor monitoring
between trained citizens and professional insect ecologists.
Overall coarse trends in pollinator abundance, richness
and community structure matched between citizens and
scientists. Citizens could reliably distinguish between native
bees and honey bees (which are not native in the US),
allowing them to provide important data on the overall
BOX 6.3
CASE STUDY: Farmers, researchers and Government working together in Tripura, India
As part of a Darwin Initiative project ‘Enhancing the
Relationship between People and Pollinators in Eastern
India’ the Centre for Pollination Studies, based at University
of Calcutta, established a field station for researchers in the
north eastern state of Tripura (http://cpscu.in/). This was
initially funded by the UK and Indian Governments and the
University of Calcutta, with ongoing support from the local
Government of Tripura. Local field staff joined the project to
support researchers and facilitate engagement with farmers.
In the first year a network of 15 long-term monitoring stations
was established. Many farmers have been keen to engage
by running long-term monitoring on their farms, sharing their
local knowledge or taking part enthusiastically in training
events. The project has run a series of well-attended farmer
events, referred to as ‘festivals’ because they include a
Some citizen science projects have generated globally
important datasets. For example, data from long-running
insect recording schemes in the UK, Belgium and the
Netherlands are the basis of important analyses of pollinator
trends in Europe (Biesmeijer et al., 2006; Carvalheiro
et al., 2013). The data held by these insect recording
schemes (see Table 6.4.6.3) are usually validated for
obvious anomalies and verified by experts to check species
identities. While there is often no information on sampling
effort, and a possibility of bias towards attractive, unusual
or easy to find species (Ward, 2014), statistical techniques
have been developed to account for these issues (Morris,
2010; Hill, 2012; Carvalheiro et al., 2013).
National-level trends and spatial patterns are discernible
from citizen-science data. Here we highlight a few studies to
illustrate this. Deguines et al. (2012) found degraded insect
flower-visitor communities in urban areas across France,
relative to agricultural or natural areas, based on data from
the SPIPOLL project. Hiromoto et al. (2013) are using a
participatory monitoring project to gather information about
the numbers of invading Bombus terrestris in Hokkaido,
Japan. Stafford et al. (2010) showed that photographic
celebratory meal and some cultural events. At festivals,
project staff provide training on pollinators and their role
in agriculture. Local officials and prominent community
members have increasingly lent their support, attending and
speaking at these events. From the outset the Tripura State
Department of Agriculture was very supportive, providing
staff at no charge and helping to keep farmers informed.
Recently a Memorandum of Understanding was signed
between the Centre for Pollination Studies and the Tripura
State Department of Biotechnology to mainstream the findings
of the project research programme and to work together to
engage and build capacity in local communities. The first
jointly-run festival event attracted 150 people. The next joint
venture will be to create exhibits in a public space.
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6. RESPONSES TO RISKS AND OPPORTUNITIES ASSOCIATED
WITH POLLINATORS AND POLLINATION