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75%的农作物的生产至关重要，其中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。通过增加作物产量，传粉者帮助确保许多全球粮食系统的运转。然而，这些食物系统内的人类活动往往对传粉者产生负面影响，减少了“传粉者自然资本”(提供授粉服务的动物种群)的存量，并扰乱了向农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产量，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者下降的担忧与日俱增，一些备受瞩目的案例研究，如IPBES传粉者和全球评估、英国的《达斯古普塔评论》和欧盟的印加会计报告，都突显了为传粉者的自然资本和传粉服务进行会计和决策评估的必要性。到目前为止，许多关于评估授粉服务的工作只侧重于服务本身对农民及其直接买家(如超市)的价值，往往主要侧重于发达的温带国家。因此，我们对以下问题知之甚少：i)全球传粉者种群，ii)种群和传粉者服务之间的关系，或iii)全球粮食系统内不同国家或行为者因传粉者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：i)传粉者对食物系统的益处的详细概述，ii)传粉者对全球化食物系统的重要性和重大经济传粉者损失风险的评估，iii)审查量化和绘制传粉者自然资本的方法，iv)关于传粉者自然资本价值的现有方法和知识的全面指南，以及v)审查更好地评估授粉对整个食物系统的影响的方法和数据需求。除了两份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，为政策和企业制作可访问的材料。尽管授粉的重要性已经在国际上(例如IPBES)和英国的政策(例如达斯古普塔审查)以及在自然资本研究(例如VNN的自然资本状况报告)中得到了讨论，但它的实际价值很少被以对决策和会计有用的方式进行评估。通过采取整个食物系统的方法，并整合生态和经济风险，我们的工作将建立在IPBES传粉者报告和达斯古普塔审查的信息基础上，以对全球任何地方的授粉价值进行最全面的评估。我们的工作将帮助政策制定者、学者和企业解决在整个粮食系统中衡量和评估传粉者和传粉者的挑战，识别世界上传粉者损失的高风险地区，并强调。

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.