Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-qsmjn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-17T17:31:17.280Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Economic Consequences of Pollinator Declines: A Synthesis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2016

Dana Marie Bauer  and
Ian Sue Wing
Dana Marie Bauer
Affiliation:
Department of Geography and Environment at Boston University
Ian Sue Wing
Affiliation:
Department of Geography and Environment at Boston University
Get access

Abstract

This paper surveys the literature on pollinator declines and related concerns regarding global food security. Methods for valuing the economic risks associated with pollinator declines are also reviewed. A computable general equilibrium (CGE) approach is introduced to assess the effects of a global catastrophic loss of pollinators. There appears to be evidence supporting a trend towards future pollinator shortages in the United States and other regions of the world. Results from the CGE model show economic risks to both direct crop sectors and indirect noncrop sectors in the economy, with some amount of regional heterogeneity.

Keywords

ecosystem servicespollinatorsfood securityvaluationcomputable general equilibrium modeling
Type
Invited Papers
Information
Agricultural and Resource Economics Review , Volume 39 , Issue 3 , October 2010 , pp. 368 - 383
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aizen, M.A., and Harder, L.D. 2009. “The Global Stock of Domesticated Honey Bees Is Growing Slower Than Agricultural Demand for Pollination.” Current Biology 19(11): 915–918.Google Scholar
Aizen, M.A., Garibaldi, L.A., Cunningham, S.A., and Klein, A.M. 2008. “Long-Term Global Trends in Crop Yield and Production Reveal No Current Pollination Shortage But Increasing Pollinator Dependency.” Current Biology 18(20): 1572–1575.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Aizen, M.A., Garibaldi, L.A., Cunningham, S.A., and Klein, A.M. 2009. “How Much Does Agriculture Depend on Pollinators? Lessons from Long-Term Trends in Crop Production.” Annals of Botany 103(9): 1579–1588.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Alig, R.J., and Plantinga, A. 2004. “Future Forestland Area: Impacts from Population Growth and Other Factors That Affect Land Values.” Journal of Forestry 102(8): 19–24.Google Scholar
Allen-Wardell, G., Bernhardt, P., Bitner, R., Burquez, A., Buchmann, S., Cane, J., Cox, P.A., Dalton, V., Feinsinger, P., Ingram, M., Inouye, D., Jones, C.E., Kennedy, K., Kevan, P., Koopowitz, H., Medellin, R., Medellin-Morales, S., Nabhan, G.P., Pavlik, B., Tepedino, V., Torchio, P., and Walker, S. 1998. “The Potential Consequences of Pollinator Declines on the Conservation of Biodiversity and Stability of Food Crop Yields.” Conservation Biology 12(1): 8–17.Google Scholar
Allsopp, M.H., de Lange, W.J., and Veldtman, R. 2008. “Valuing Insect Pollination Services with Cost Replacement.” PLoS ONE 3(9): e3128.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ashworth, L., Quesada, M., Casas, A., Aguilar, R., and Oyama, K. 2009. “Pollinator-Dependent Food Production in Mexico.” Biological Conservation 142(5): 1050–1057.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Biesmeijer, J.C., Roberts, S.P.M., Reemer, M., Ohlemuller, R., Edwards, M., Peeters, T., Schaffers, A.P., Potts, S.G., Kleukers, R., Thomas, C.D., Settele, J., and Kunin, W.E. 2006. “Parallel Declines in Pollinators and Insect-Pollinated Plants in Britain and the Netherlands.” Science 313(5785): 351–354.Google Scholar
Bohringer, C., and Loschel, A. 2006. “Computable General Equilibrium Models for Sustainable Impact Assessment: Status Quo and Prospects.” Ecological Economics 60(1): 49–64.Google Scholar
Brown, D.G., Johnson, K.M., Loveland, T.R., and Theobald, D.M. 2005. “Rural Land-Use Trends in the Conterminous United States, 1950-2000.” Ecological Applications 15(6): 1851–1863.Google Scholar
Burgett, M. 2009. “Pacific Northwest Honey Bee Pollination Economics Survey 2009.” National Honey Report 29(11): 10–16.Google Scholar
Burgett, M., Daberkow, S., Rucker, R., and Thurman, W. 2010. “U.S. Pollination Markets: Recent Changes and Historical Perspective.” American Bee Journal 150(1): 35–41.Google Scholar
Carbone, J.C., Helm, C., and Rutherford, T.F. 2009. “The Case for International Emission Trade in the Absence of Cooperative Climate Policy.” Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 58(3): 266–280.Google Scholar
Carbone, J.C., and Smith, V.K. 2008. “Evaluating Policy Interventions with General Equilibrium Externalities.” Journal of Public Economics 92(5/6): 1254–1274.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carbone, J.C., and Smith, V.K. 2010. “Valuing Ecosystem Services in General Equilibrium.” NBER Working Paper No. w15844, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Caron, D.M. 2010. “Bee Colony Pollination Rental Prices, Eastern US with Comparison to West Coast.” Available at http:/maarec.cas.psu.edu/pdfs/Pollination-rentals.pdf (accessed June 10, 2010).Google Scholar
Cunningham, S.A. 2000. “Depressed Pollination in Habitat Fragments Causes Low Fruit Set.” Proceedings of the Royal Society B 267(1448): 1149–1152.Google Scholar
Espinosa, J.A., and Smith, V.K. 1995. “Measuring the Environmental Consequences of Trade Policy: A Nonmarket CGE Analysis.” American Journal of Agricultural Economics 77(3): 772–777.Google Scholar
FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). 2010. FAOSTAT. Available at http://faostat.fao.org (accessed June 4, 2010).Google Scholar
Fraser, I., and Waschik, R. 2005. “Agricultural Land Retirement and Slippage: Lessons from an Australian Case Study.” Land Economics 81(2): 206–226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gallai, N., Salles, J.-M., Figuieres, C., and Vaissiere, B.E. 2009a. “Economic Assessment of an Insect Pollinator Decline: A General Equilibrium Analysis.” LAMETA Working Paper No. 09-17, Laboratoire Montpellierain d’Economie Théorique et Appliquée, University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France. Available at http://www.lameta.univ-montp1.fr/Documents/DR2009-17.pdf (accessed September 9, 2010).Google Scholar
Gallai, N., Salles, J.-M., Settele, J., and Vaissiere, B.E. 2009b. “Economic Valuation of the Vulnerability of World Agriculture with Pollinator Decline.” Ecological Economics 68(3): 810–821.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garibaldi, L.A., Aizen, M.A., Cunningham, S.A., and Klein, A.M. 2009. “Pollinator Shortage and Global Crop Yield.” Communicative and Integrative Biology 2(1): 37–39.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ghazoul, J. 2005a. “Buzziness as Usual? Questioning the Global Pollination Crisis.” Trends in Ecology and Evolution 20(7): 367–373.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ghazoul, J. 2005b. “Response to Steffan-Dewenter et al.: Questioning the Global Pollination Crisis.” Trends in Ecology and Evolution 20(12): 652–653.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greenleaf, S.S., and Kremen, C. 2006. “Wild Bees Enhance Honey Bees’ Pollination of Hybrid Sunflower.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 103(37): 13890–13895.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hansen, A.J., Knight, R.L., Marzluff, J.M., Powell, S., Brown, K., Gude, P.H., and Jones, K. 2005. “Effects of Exurban Development on Biodiversity: Patterns, Mechanisms, and Research Needs.” Ecological Applications 15(6): 1893–1905.Google Scholar
Hertel, T.W., and Tsigas, M.E. 1988. “Tax Policy and U.S. Agriculture: A General Equilibrium Analysis.” American Journal of Agricultural Economics 70(2): 289–302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, R. 2010. “Honey Bee Colony Collapse Disorder.” CRS report for Congress, Congressional Research Service 7-5700, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Kasina, J.M., Mburu, J., Kraemer, M., and Holm-Mueller, K. 2009. “Economic Benefit of Crop Pollination by Bees: A Case of Kakamega Small-Holder Farming in Western Kenya.” Journal of Economic Entomology 102(2): 467–473.Google Scholar
Kearns, C.A., Inouye, D.W., and Waser, N.M. 1998. “Endangered Mutualisms: The Conservation of Plant-Pollinator Interactions.” Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 29(1): 83–112.Google Scholar
Kevan, P.G., and Phillips, T.P. 2001. “The Economic Impacts of Pollinator Declines: An Approach to Assessing Consequences.” Ecology and Society 5(1): 8.Google Scholar
Klein, A.-M., Steffan-Dewenter, I., and Tshcamtke, T. 2003. “Fruit Set of Highland Coffee Increases with the Diversity of Pollinating Bees.” Proceedings of the Royal Society B 270(1518): 955–961.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Klein, A.-M., Vaissiere, B.E., Cane, J.H., Steffan-Dewenter, I., Cunningham, S.A., Kremen, C., and Tschamtke, T. 2007. “Importance of Pollinators in Changing Landscapes for World Crops.” Proceedings of the Royal Society B 274(1608): 303–313.Google Scholar
Kluser, S., and Peduzzi, P. 2007. Global Pollinator Decline: A Literature Review. UNEP/GRID-Europe, United Nations. Available at http://www.grid.unep.ch/product/publication/download/article_lit_review_20071129.pdf (accessed September 9, 2010.Google Scholar
Kremen, C., Williams, N.M., and Thorp, R.W. 2002. “Crop Pollination from Native Bees at Risk from Agricultural Intensification.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 99(26): 16812–16816.Google ScholarPubMed
Le Féon, V., Schermann-Legionnet, A., Delettre, Y., Avioron, S., Billeter, R., Bugter, R., Hendrickx, R., and Burel, F. 2010. “Intensification of Agriculture, Landscape Composition and Wild Bee Communities: A Large Scale Study in Four European Countries.” Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 137(1/2): 143–150.Google Scholar
Losey, J.E., and Vaughan, M. 2006. “The Economic Value of Ecological Services Provided by Insects.” BioScience 56(4): 311–323.Google Scholar
MEA (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment). 2003. Ecosystems and Human Well-Being: A Framework for Assessment. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.Google Scholar
Morandin, L.A., and Winston, M.L. 2006. “Pollinators Provide Economic Incentive to Preserve Natural Land in Agroecosystems.” Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 116(3/4): 289–292.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morse, R.A., and Calderone, N.W. 2000. “The Value of Honey Bees as Pollinators of U.S. Crops in 2000.” Bee Culture 128(1): 1–15.Google Scholar
Muth, M.K., and Thurman, W.N. 1995. “Why Support the Price of Honey?” Choices 10(2): 19–21.Google Scholar
Naban, G.P., and Buchmann, S.L. 1997. “Services Provided by Pollinators.” In Daily, G.C., ed., Nature's Services: Societal Dependence on Natural Ecosystems. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.Google Scholar
Narayanan, G.B., and Walmsley, T.L. (eds.). 2008. Global Trade, Assistance, and Production: The GTAP 7 Data Base. Center for Global Trade Analysis, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN.Google Scholar
NRC (National Research Council). 2005. Valuing Ecosystem Services: Towards Better Environmental Decision-Making. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press.Google Scholar
NRC (National Research Council). 2007. Status of Pollinators in North America. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press.Google Scholar
Olschewski, R., Tscharntke, T., Benitez, P.C., Schwartze, S., and Klein, A.-M. 2006. “Economic Evaluation of Pollination Services Comparing Coffee Landscapes in Ecuador and Indonesia.” Ecology and Society 11(1): 7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pettis, J.S., and Delaplane, K.S. 2010. “Coordinated Responses to Honey Bee. Decline in the USA.” Apidologie 41(3): 256–263.Google Scholar
Potts, S.G., Biesmeijer, J.C., Kremen, C., Neumann, P., Schweiger, O., and Kunin, W.E. 2010. “Global Pollinator Declines: Trends, Impacts and Drivers.” Trends in Ecology and Evolution 25(6): 345–353.Google Scholar
Priess, J.A., Mimler, M., Klein, A.-M., Schwartze, S., Tscharntke, T., and Steffan-Dewenter, I. 2007. “Linking Deforestation Scenarios to Pollination Services and Economic Returns in Coffee Agroforestry Systems.” Ecological Applications 17(2): 407–417.Google Scholar
Ricketts, T.H., Daily, G.C., Ehrlich, P.R., and Michener, C.D. 2004. “Economic Value of Tropical Forest to Coffee Production.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 101(34): 12579–12582.Google Scholar
Robinson, W.S., Nowogrodzki, R., and Morse, R.A. 1989. “The Value of Honey Bees as Pollinators of U.S. Crops.” American Bee Journal 129(5): 411–423 and 477-487.Google Scholar
Roe, T., Dinar, A., Tsur, Y., and Diao, X. 2005. “Feedback Links between Economy-Wide and Farm-Level Policies: With Application to Irrigation Water Management in Morocco.” Journal of Policy Modeling 27(8): 905–928.Google Scholar
Roubik, D.W. 2002. “The Value of Bees to the Coffee Harvest.” Nature 417(6890): 708.Google Scholar
Southwick, E.E., and Southwick, L. 1992. “Estimating the Economic Value of Honey Bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) as Agricultural Pollinators in the United States.” Journal of Economic Entomology 85(3): 621–633.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steffan-Dewenter, I., Potts, S.G., and Packer, L. 2005. “Pollinator Diversity and Crop Pollination Services Are at Risk.” Trends in Ecology and Evolution 20(12): 651–652.Google Scholar
Sue Wing, I. 2009. “Computable General Equilibrium Models for the Analysis of Energy and Climate Policies.” In Evans, J. and Hunt, L.C., eds., International Handbook on the Economics of Energy. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.Google Scholar
Sumner, D.A., and Borriss, H. 2006. “Bee-conomics and the Leap in Pollination Fees.” Agricultural and Resource Economics Update 9(3): 9–11.Google Scholar
Theobold, D. 2001. “Land-Use Dynamics Beyond the American Fringe.” The Geographical Review 91(3): 544–564.Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Agriculture. 2010a. “Bee and Honey Inquiry.” National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), USDA, Washington, D.C. Available at http://www.nass.usda.gov/Surveys/Guide_to_NASS_Surveys/Bee_and_Honey (accessed June 8, 2010).Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Agriculture. 2010b. Census of Agriculture. National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), USDA, Washington, D.C. Available at http://www.agcensus.usda.gov (accessed June 8, 2010).Google Scholar
vanEngelsdorp, D., Evans, J.D., Saeferman, C., Mullin, C., Haubruge, E., Nguyen, B.K., Frazier, M., Frazier, J., Cox-Foster, D., Chen, Y., Underwood, R., Tarpy, D.R., and Pettis, J.S. 2009. “Colony Collapse Disorder: A Descriptive Study.” PLoS ONE 4(8): e6481.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
vanEngelsdorp, D., Hayes, J., Underwood, R.M., and Pettis, J. 2008. “A Survey of Honey Bee Colony Losses in the U.S., Fall 2007 to Spring 2008.” PLoS ONE 3(12): e4071.Google Scholar
vanEngelsdorp, D., and Meixner, M.D. 2010. “A Historical Review of Managed Honey Bee Populations in Europe and the United States and the Factors That May Affect Them.” Journal of Invertebrate Pathology 103(S1): S80–S95.Google Scholar
Veddeler, D., Olschewski, R., Tscharntke, T., and Klein, A.-M. 2008. “The Contribution on Non-Managed Social Bees to Coffee Production: New Economic Insights Based on Farm-Scale Yield Data.” Agroforestry Systems 73(2): 109–114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Winfree, R., Aguilar, R., Vazquez, D.P., LeBuhn, G., and Aizen, M.A. 2009. “A Meta-Analysis of Bees’ Responses to Anthropogenic Disturbance.” Ecology 90(8): 2068–2076.Google Scholar
Zhang, W., Ricketts, T.H., Kremen, C., Carney, K., and Swinton, S.M. 2007. “Ecosystem Services and Dis-services to Agriculture.” Ecological Economics 64(2): 253–260.Google Scholar