POLLINATORS POLLINATION AND FOOD PRODUCTION

THE ASSESSMENT REPORT ON POLLINATORS, POLLINATION AND FOOD PRODUCTION
objectives and performance measures with stakeholders, as
well as monitoring and review stages to incorporate learning
into the ongoing decisions. SDM practitioners employ
various Multi-Criteria analysis tools, when formal quantitative
analysis of trade-offs is required to make a decision.
on the process of consultation and decision-making around
major projects. The guidance does not mention pollination
as a possible service.
6.5.1.7 Vulnerability assessment
6.5.1.5 Cost-benefit analysis
Cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analyses (section
4.1.1.4) have both been used to address decisions about
pollinators (Morandin and Winston, 2006; Olschewski et al.,
2007; Breeze et al., 2014a). A range of valuation methods
can be employed (see Table 4.2).
Marginal Abatement Cost (MAC) curves are a popular tool
to illustrate cost-effectiveness information. They show the
cost associated with the last unit (marginal cost) for varying
amounts of reduction in something bad for the environment
(such as greenhouse gas emissions), or supply of an
environmental good (such as clean water or pollination).
They are used to select a cost-effective set of responses to
an environmental problem and have mostly been employed
to inform climate change mitigation policy (Kesicki and
Strachan, 2011). MAC curves have not yet been employed
to inform decisions on actions to enhance pollination, or
other ecosystem services, because the analysis required to
do so it still at an early stage. Ricketts and Lonsdorf (2013)
estimated marginal losses of pollination value from removal
of forest patches in a Costa Rican landscape, and showed
that the marginal pollination value of a hectare of forest is
highest when the density of surrounding forest cover is low.
To develop a MAC curve, this marginal value information
would be combined with the cost associated with keeping
each hectare of forest, the amount of forest available to
keep, and then compared to similar marginal pollination
values generated by other responses, such as retaining or
restoring other habitat types.
6.5.1.6 Environmental Impact
Assessment
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a set of welldefined
methods for evaluating the environmental impact
of particular projects or activities. In Europe, regulation
requires that EIAs be carried out on all projects involving
certain defined process. When applied to policies, it is called
Strategic Environment Assessment.
Vulnerability Assessment, or vulnerability analysis, describes
an analytical exercise in which the goal is to identify areas,
sectors or groups of people particularly vulnerable to
adverse effects of environmental change (see definition of
vulnerability in Chapter 4, Section 4.6.1). It might be thought
of as a broader, generic form of risk assessment. Several
different approaches and frameworks have been used.
Indicator-Based Vulnerability Assessment (IBVA) is a widely
used method that combines quantitative and qualitative
indicators, and has been used to inform climate change
adaptation in the contexts of public health and water
management (Tonmoy et al., 2014). These authors warn that
methodological problems such as inappropriate scales and
aggregation methods are frequent.
Given the emerging ability to identify areas of potential
pollination deficit, vulnerability analysis could be a useful
tool for policy on pollinators and pollination. A spreadsheetbased
tool developed by the Food and Agriculture
Organisation of the United Nations (Gallai and Vaissiere,
2009) allows a simple economic vulnerability assessment for
a national economy (see Decision support tools, 6.5.1.12).
6.5.1.8 Environmental accounting
In environmental accounting, pollinators can be considered
as a natural capital asset, and pollination as an input to
production (see Chapter 4, Section 4.4). The recently
developed System of Environmental-Economic-Accounting
(European Commission et al., 2012) accounts for
‘environmental goods and services’, which are flows of
products within the economy, rather than flows of services
from the environment to the economy. This system is
designed to accord with the established System of National
Accounts (an international statistical standard for compiling
national accounts). It treats pollination as an input to the
growth of a mature crop, flowing in fixed proportion to the
quantities of harvested product, therefore assuming that
the production function is stable (European Commission et
al., 2013). The level of pollination can be accounted for as a
function of the abundance of pollinators.
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6. RESPONSES TO RISKS AND OPPORTUNITIES ASSOCIATED
WITH POLLINATORS AND POLLINATION
We found no examples of EIA taking explicit account of
pollinators or pollination. A review of Environment Impact
Assessment methods applied to the fruit sector doesn’t
mention pollination (Cerutti et al., 2011). Crist et al. (2013)
describe a process for assessing the likely impacts of a
development on regional ecosystem services, which focuses
We found no example of pollination actually being
accounted for in a national accounting framework, but steps
have been taken towards doing so. For example, Dickie
et al. (2014) assessed which characteristics of pollination
need to be understood to allow its appraisal as a natural
capital asset in national accounts. They identified a need to