The Economic Value of Bees and Pollinators

How bees, butterflies and other pollinators support a large share of the world's crops, the threats they face, and why their decline is an economic risk.

Every day, bees, butterflies, moths, birds and bats carry pollen from flower to flower, helping plants produce fruits and seeds. This service, called pollination, is essential for many crops.

Crops that depend on pollinators

Fruits: apples, mangoes, cherries, melons.
Vegetables: cucumbers, pumpkins, tomatoes.
Nuts and oilseeds: almonds, mustard, sunflower.
Coffee and cocoa.

Staple grains like rice, wheat and maize are mostly wind-pollinated, but many nutritious foods depend on animal pollinators.

The economic value

The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, or IPBES, estimated in 2016 that between 235 and 577 billion dollars worth of annual global food production depends on pollinators. About three-quarters of the leading types of food crops rely at least partly on animal pollination.

Threats

Habitat loss from intensive farming.
Pesticides, especially certain insecticides.
Diseases and parasites in bee colonies.
Climate change, shifting flowering times.

Paying for pollination

In some countries, farmers rent beehives during flowering. In California, almond growers pay beekeepers to bring huge numbers of hives each spring. This turns an ecosystem service into a market.

India

Beekeeping supports rural livelihoods, and India promotes it through the National Beekeeping and Honey Mission.
Apple growers in Himachal Pradesh have faced pollination problems and brought in bee colonies.
Pollinator-friendly practices, such as flowering field borders, can raise yields.

Why it matters

Pollinator decline could reduce yields of nutritious foods, raise prices and harm diets. Protecting pollinators is a cheap form of insurance for food systems.

The orchard's hives

An apple grower notices poor fruit set after years of pesticide use and declining wild bees. He rents beehives during flowering and plants wildflowers around the orchard. His harvest improves, showing the economic value of pollinators.

Thinking pollinators matter only for honey

Pollinators support a large share of fruits, vegetables, nuts and oilseeds, worth hundreds of billions of dollars a year.

Key takeaways

Many fruits, vegetables, nuts and oilseeds depend on animal pollinators.
IPBES estimated 235 to 577 billion dollars of annual food production depends on pollinators.
Habitat loss, pesticides, disease and climate threaten pollinators.
Renting hives and pollinator-friendly farming can protect yields.