It is an alarming scenario. The population of over 20,000 species of insects and animals, including bees, butterflies, beetles, bats, moths, wasps and birds, is declining rapidly worldwide owing to human pressure. Since they are responsible for pollinating the food crops, their absence is bound to pose serious threats to global food production and, thereby public health.
United Nations Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) recently released the first ever global appraisal of the perils to pollinators in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
According to the assessment, as much as 35 percent plants worldwide depend on pollination and are responsible for global crop production worth a whopping $577 billion annually. Moreover, the agricultural system, wherein these pollinators play a vital role, provides employment to millions of people worldwide.
During a media briefing last week, Simon Potts, deputy director of Reading University's Center for Agri-Environmental Research, pointed out that the IPBES report comprises four far-reaching findings.
Apart from documenting the declines in pollinator populations, wild and managed, worldwide, it states that these creatures provide wide ranging benefits to the society. At the same time, it points to the factors responsible for the threat and observes that they can still be protected, provided correct measures are initiated immediately, Chicago Tribune reported.
The document pointed out that several of these pollinator species, including some 16 percent of vertebrates like birds and bats. For instance, the population of hummingbirds and about 2,000 avian species, which move from one flower to another to feed on nectar and spread pollens in the process, has declined significantly. While the document does not specify the extinction risk for insects, it warned of "high levels of threat" for some species of bees and butterflies.
According to the document, the factors responsible for the rapid decline in the population of pollinators are inter-related. They include destructive agricultural practices like growing crops on every available acre, thereby eliminating spaces for wildflowers and destruction of cover crops, which sustain the pollinators. In addition, farming has also exposed the pollinators to pesticides, while bees face threats from several parasites and pathogens, New York Times reported.
Another factor is climate change, especially for bumblebees in Europe and North America. As temperatures rise across the world there is a shift in the territories of plants as well as pollinators. The flowering times of the plants have also changed giving rise to apprehensions on whether the pollinators will be there when the plants are in bloom, Sir Robert Watson, vice-chairman of the University of East Anglia's Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research said.
