Economic benefits of pollination to global food systems - Evidence and knowledge gaps

蜜蜂和其他动物的授粉对世界上75%的作物的生产至关重要，包括许多在世界各地广泛交易的作物，如咖啡、可可和油菜籽。通过提高作物产量，传粉媒介有助于确保许多全球粮食系统的运作。然而，这些粮食系统内的人类活动往往对传粉媒介产生负面影响，减少了“传粉媒介自然资本”（提供授粉服务的动物种群）的存量，扰乱了向作物和其他有益植物提供授粉服务的流动。这导致农民损失了数百万美元的生产，因为他们的产量受到授粉不足的限制。各国和全球政策制定者对传粉媒介数量下降的担忧日益加剧，IPBES传粉媒介和全球评估、英国达斯古普塔评估和欧盟INCA会计报告等备受瞩目的案例研究都强调了在会计和决策中重视传粉媒介自然资本和授粉服务的必要性。迄今为止，对授粉服务进行评估的大部分工作只关注服务本身对农民及其直接买家（例如超市）的价值，通常主要集中在发达的温带国家。因此，我们对以下方面知之甚少：(1)传粉媒介的全球存量；(2)存量与授粉服务之间的关系；(3)全球粮食系统中不同国家或行为体因传粉媒介损失而面临的相对风险。我们的项目将通过综合已发表的学术文献、全球可用的经济数据和新的批判性分析来解决这些问题，以产生：1)详细概述传粉媒介对粮食系统的益处，2)评估传粉媒介对全球化粮食系统的重要性以及具有重大经济意义的传粉媒介损失的风险，3)评估传粉媒介自然资本的量化和测绘方法，4)对传粉媒介价值的现有方法和知识的综合指南，5)评估更好地评估传粉媒介对整个粮食系统影响的方法和数据需求。除了两本高质量的学术出版物外，我们还将与一位经验丰富的科学艺术家合作，为政策和企业制作通俗易懂的材料。尽管授粉的重要性已经在国际（例如IPBES）和英国政策（例如Dasgupta审查）以及自然资本研究（例如VNN的自然资本状态报告）中得到了讨论，但实际上很少以一种对决策和会计有用的方式进行评估。通过采用整个粮食系统方法，综合生态和经济风险，我们的工作将以IPBES传粉媒介报告和Dasgupta审查的信息为基础，对全球任何地方可用的传粉价值进行最全面的评估。我们的工作将帮助政策制定者、学者和企业应对在衡量和评估整个粮食系统中传粉媒介和授粉方面的挑战，确定世界上传粉媒介损失风险较高的地区，并强调这一点。

Pollination by bees and other animals is crucial to the production of 75% of the worlds crops, including many that are widely traded around the world, such as coffee, cocoa and rapseeed. By increasing crop production, pollinators help ensure the functioning of many global food systems. However, human activity within those food systems often has negative effects on pollinators, decreasing stocks of "pollinator natural capital" (populations of animals that provide pollination services) and disrupting the flow of pollination services to crops and other beneficial plants. This has resulted in farmers losing out on millions of $ in production because their yields are limited by insufficient pollination. Concerns over pollinator declines have been growing among national and global policy makers with high profile case studies such as the IPBES pollinator and global assessments, the UK's Dasgupta Review and the EU's INCA accounting report, all highlighting the need to value pollinator natural capital and pollination services for accounting and decision making. To date, much of the work on valuing pollination services has only focused on the value of the service itself to farmers and their immediate buyers (e.g. supermarkets), often focusing heavily on developed, temperate nations. As such, we know very little about i) global stocks of pollinators, ii) the relationship between stocks and pollination services or iii) the relative risks that different countries or actors within the global food system face from pollinator losses.Our project will address these issues by synthesising published academic literature, globally available economic data and new critical analyses to produce: i) a detailed outline of the benefits of pollinators to food systems, ii) an evaluation of the importance of pollination to globalised food systems and risks of economically significant pollinator losses, iii) review methods for quantifying and mapping pollinator natural capital, iv) comprehensive guide to the existing methods and knowledge on the value of pollination, and v) a review of the methods and data needs for better evaluating the impacts of pollination to the whole food system. In addition to two high quality academic publications, we will also collaborate with an experienced scientific artist to produce accessible materials for policy and businesses. Although the importance of pollination has been discussed in international (e.g IPBES) and UK policy (e.g. the Dasgupta review), and in natural capital research (e.g. VNN's state of natural capital report), it is rarely actually valued in a manner useful for decision making and accounting. By taking a whole food system approach and integrating both ecological and economic risks, our work will build on the information from the IPBES pollinators report and the Dasgupta review to produce the most comprehensive appraisal of the value of pollination available anywhere globally. Our work will help policymakers, academics and business to address challenges in measuring and valuing pollinators and pollination across the whole food system, identify parts of the world that are at high risks for pollinator losses, and highlight.