It has only recently been recognized how essential pollinators are to the world’s ecosystems in general, and horticultural crop production specifically. the services that bees and other pollinators provide freely to agriculture have been taken for granted in the past. But as agriculture has intensified, with larger fields and greater applications of agrochemicals, populations of pollinators have shown steep declines in a number of localities. Multiple causes are indicated, amongst them the impacts of pesticides on pollinating insects. as a contribution to identifying measures needed to counteract pollinator decline, an initial profile of the levels of risk that pollinators may be exposed to in diverse farming systems is warranted. in this publication, we have developed such a profile, and tested and modified it by its application to bees in a range of agricultural systems in Brazil, Kenya, and the Netherlands. the procedure for developing risk profiles for focal crops, as well as the information derived from developing such profiles in the three countries, is presented as guidance for others who may wish to do the same. the risk profiling approach described in this report may serve in identifying research priorities for pesticide risk assessment and risk mitigation for pollinators. it can also be used, however, to identify which cropping systems are likely to expose pollinators to high pesticide-induced risks, and where risk reduction measures should therefore be taken urgently.
