Summary for policymakers of the assessment report of the methodological assessment of scenarios and models of biodiversity and ecosystem services

Abstract

The objective of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services is to provide Governments, private sector, and civil society with scientifically credible and independent up-to-date assessments of available knowledge to make informed decisions at the local, national and international level. This assessment on pollinators, pollination and food production has been carried out by experts from all regions of the world, who have analysed a large body of knowledge, including about 3,000 scientific publications. It represents the state of our knowledge on this issue. Its chapters and their executive summaries were accepted, and its summary for policymakers was approved, by the Plenary of IPBES at its fourth session (22-28 February 2016, Kuala Lumpur). This report provides a critical assessment of the full range of issues facing decision-makers, including the value of pollination and pollinators, status, trends and threats to pollinators and pollination, and policy and management response options. It concludes that pollinators, which are economically and socially important, are increasingly under threat from human activities, including climate change, with observed decreases in the abundance and diversity of wild pollinators. However, the report also outlines a wide range of management and response options that are available to halt the further decline of pollinators. The assessment concludes that 75% of our food crops and nearly 90% of wild flowering plants depend at least to some extent on animal pollination and that a high diversity of wild pollinators is critical to pollination even when managed bees are present in high numbers.