Implications of Pollinator Biodiversity Decline for Food Security, Economy, and Pollinator Conservation Policies

Turiba University, 68 Graudu street, LV-1058, Riga, Latvia

^* Corresponding author: denisksil@gmail.com

Abstract

Pollinator decline is one of the most significant ecological problems of the 21^st century. This decline threatens human food security and global economy. In order to address this problem governments across Europe and the USA have introduced national pollinator conservation strategies. These strategies, however, significantly differ in approaches to conservation. The differences at least in part stem from lack of consensus in the literature on whether pollinator biodiversity or abundance of a few common species determines crop pollination. Critical evaluation of empirical evidence available to date outlined in this paper suggests that pollinator biodiversity rather than abundance of dominant species determine quality, magnitude and resilience of pollination ecosystem services to agriculture. In order to maintain pollinator biodiversity conservation strategies and initiatives should focus on enhancing habitat quality, complementarity and connectivity, rather than solely on increasing floral resource abundance and diversity within farmland fields. Conservation strategies currently underway need to be improved to address all three factors through landscape scale interventions. Countries that intend to design and introduce pollinator conservation strategies should take best practices from several existing strategies rather than choosing a single strategy as an example.