Valuation of Pollination Services Identifying the economic value of pollination services is important, as many academics argue that supporting conservation by determining economic value is an effective approach for protecting ecosystem services. Yet, due to our incomplete understanding of the complex biological processes involved, this exercise has proven to be exceptionally challenging to date — how does one put an accurate price on a service that is a cornerstone for life on earth? As a result, few attempts have been made to create a mechanism for identifying an economic value for pollination services in the United States (21). This section lays out existing economic arguments for valuing pollination services and then offers some additional indirect value considerations. Economic Considerations Worldwide, at least thirty percent of 1500 crop plant species depend on pollination by bees and other insects (3). Historically, the US agricultural industry has depended heavily on the honeybee for its pollination needs. Consequently, most of the few existing studies that evaluate the economic importance of pollination services focus on agriculture and the honeybee. For example, Southwick and Southwick estimate the annual economic benefit to US consumers from honeybee pollination of agricultural crops as between $1.6 billion and $8.3 billion. This range was calculated by assessing the potential economic losses if honeybee services were reduced for sixty-two US crops. The low value assumes that wild pollinators could replace reduced honeybee services, and the high value reflects a scenario where no other pollinators are available. Economic losses are defined as increased costs from additional inputs, such as land and labor, which would be required to produce yields similar to those where honeybee services were constant (25).

The potential annual economic contributions of wild pollinators to US agriculture can also be estimated using the Southwicks' model. Annual economic losses to the sixty-two crops analyzed in this model are estimated to be between $5.7 and $8.3 billion when native pollinators are not available to replace the managed honeybees' services. Losses would be reduced to just $1.6 billion when the services of wild pollinators substitute the honeybee to the fullest extent possible. Therefore, the potential annual value of all other pollinators to US agriculture is between $4.1 and $6.7 billion (16). A decline in pollinator activity is, in fact, not a hypothetical scenario. Decreases in services have already caused problems for some crops. For example: • Serious bee shortages in 1994 forced almond growers in California to import managed bees from other regions of the country in order to save their $800 million crop (28). • To avoid a seventy percent reduction in US alfalfa yields, farmers are using alfalfa leafcutter bees and native pollinators to replace declining honeybees. If no alternative pollinators had been available, the cost to replace lost production would have been $315 million per year for US consumers (16). The honeybee's significance to the agricultural industry is not the only aspect of pollination services that has economic value. In fact, pollination services can be linked to many other parts of present day economies. For example, whereas flowers blossom on plants as a mechanism for attracting pollinators and not specifically for our benefit, humans have placed an incredibly significant aesthetic value on their uniqueness, beauty, and aroma. As a result, the production of flowers for visual pleasure and perfumes has developed into two large industries that rely to some degree on the services of pollinators. The pharmaceutical industry, cattle grazers, and people throughout the United States with small gardens in their backyards are also dependent upon and realize economic benefits from pollinators each year (1,16).

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Non-economic Considerations Identifying economic value is not the only means for conveying the significance of pollination services and the relationships between pollinators and plants. With well over 200,000 flowering plant species dependent on pollination from over 100,000 other species, pollination interactions have been a catalyst in developing, and are important to maintaining, the vast wealth of biodiversity on this planet. Consequently, pollination activity is a keystone process in both human-managed and natural terrestrial ecosystems. Without this service, many interconnected species inhabiting, and processes functioning within, an ecosystem would collapse (14,16). Flowers also produce the seeds and fruits that comprise the diets of many animal species. Pollinator declines can limit seed and fruit production and disrupt food supplies in natural communities. Finally, pollinators have only recently been acknowledged for their contribution as consumers and distributors of energy-rich floral biomass. One study found pollinating bees in Panama collect and convert more forest resources than any other group of species except underground invertebrates and soil microbes (16,22).

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