Pollinators are vital to our wellbeing and the survival of nature. By helping plants reproduce, pollinators support a steady supply of healthy and economically valuable food for humans and prop up entire ecosystems. However, we are at risk of losing these benefits, and many others, with the ongoing and dramatic decline of pollinators witnessed around the world. This brief highlights the importance of pollinators for food production and nature, covering pollination of both crops and wild plants. It also explores the drivers of pollinator decline and the role of monitoring in driving the actions to reverse it. The report is written
in the context of the EU Pollinators Initiative, a strategy for the EU and its Member States to address the decline of pollinators.
Three quarters of the world’s main crop plant types need pollinators to at least some extent. Pollinators are not just responsible for boosting the yield of these crops and supporting food security: they also enhance crop quality and, in turn, their economic value. Many of these fruit, vegetable, nut and oil crops are essential to human health, supplying key nutrients for a balanced diet and helping prevent many serious diseases, including cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Pollinators and the plants they pollinate form an intimate and intricate web of relationships that helps bind ecosystems together, create healthier plants and build a bedrock for the survival of other species. Reductions in plant health and diversity stand to have a domino effect that ripples throughout ecosystems, affecting and threatening other plants and animals through the tangled web of interactions between organisms. Pollinator loss will also erode valuable ecosystem services for humans, beyond pollination. A resultant loss of pollinator-dependent plants will reduce the ability of ecosystems to store carbon and protect against floods, for instance, while the loss of certain pollinators themselves can also take away their pest control services. We also stand to lose the social and cultural values that many pollinating species provide to society.
