Pollinators and Resilience

Pollinators & Resilience

Overview Definitions Resources Literature
AGRI4POL Global Information Product 1

Pollinator Contributions to Resilience: Implications for Biodiversity, Economies, Agri-food Systems, and Livelihoods

This fact sheet was developed based on a review of global assessments and scientific literature on pollination and ecosystem services, including work by IPBES, FAO and other international organizations.

Cover of the fact sheet Pollinator Contributions to Resilience: Implications for Biodiversity, Economies, Agri-food Systems, and Livelihoods

Contributors

Holly Barclay, Tom Breeze, ProPollSoil (Paolo Biella, Pilar de la Rua, Justine Dewaele, Monika Egerer, Vlontzos Georgios, Paul Hallett, Jacek Jachula, Alex Keller, Georgios Kleftodimos, Sara Diana Leonhardt, Fabio Manfedini, Edward Mitchell, Astrid Neumann, Fabrice Requier, Aleksandra Splitt, Markus Sydenham), Mirella Miettinen, Hien Ngo, Simon Potts, Tereza Prášilová Chábová, Fabiana Spinelli, Tiffany Straza, Adam Vanbergen (contributors listed alphabetically)

Project & partners

  • AGRI4POL
  • Butterfly
  • ProPollSoil
  • VALOR

Definitions of ‘resilience’

The following selected definitions, while not comprehensive, reflect discussions of the concept of the resilience of systems in different management contexts, with many similarities across environmental and sectoral themes.

CBD Convention on Biological Diversity
“The capacity of a system to absorb disturbance and reorganize while undergoing change so as to still retain essentially the same function, structure, identity, and feedbacks (Walker et al., 2004).”

Source CBD/WG2020/5/4

IPBES Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
“The level of disturbance that an ecosystem or society can undergo without crossing a threshold to a situation with different structure or outputs. Resilience depends on factors such as ecological dynamics as well as the organizational and institutional capacity to understand, manage, and respond to these dynamics.”

Source https://www.ipbes.net/glossary-tag/resilience

IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
“The capacity of interconnected social, economic and ecological systems to cope with a hazardous event, trend or disturbance, responding or reorganizing in ways that maintain their essential function, identity and structure. Resilience is a positive attribute when it maintains capacity for adaptation, learning and/or transformation (Arctic Council, 2016).”

Source AR6, https://apps.ipcc.ch/glossary/

UNCCD United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification
“Resilience is the capacity of a system to maintain its structure and multiple functions —ecological, health, social, economic, and cultural— in the face of shocks, disturbances, and external pressure, to quickly recover from such disruptions, to adapt to changes, and to learn from past experiences, without eroding the agency of human actors in that system to resist, reverse, or alter negative external factors or to advance equity, justice, and inclusivity within that system.”

Source Elaydi H. 2021. Food System Resilience and Land Restorationv. UNCCD Global Land Outlook Working Paper. Bonn.

UNDRR United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction
“The ability of a system, community or society exposed to hazards to resist, absorb, accommodate, adapt to, transform and recover from the effects of a hazard in a timely and efficient manner, including through the preservation and restoration of its essential basic structures and functions through risk management.”

Source https://www.undrr.org/terminology/resilience

FAO United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization
“Resilience is the ability to prevent disasters and crises, and to anticipate, absorb, accommodate or recover from them in a timely, efficient and sustainable manner. This includes protecting, restoring and improving food and agricultural systems under threats that impact food and nutrition security, agriculture, and/or food safety/public health.”

Source http://www.fao.org/docrep/015/i2540e/i2540e00

Additional resources

Underpinning technical literature

  1. 1. Feuerbacher, A. Pollinator declines, international trade and global food security: Reassessing the global economic and nutritional impacts. Ecological Economics 232, 108565 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2025.108565
  2. 2. Ollerton, J., Winfree, R. & Tarrant, S. How many flowering plants are pollinated by animals? Oikos 120, 321–326 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0706.2010.18644.x
  3. 3. Tong, Z.-Y. et al. New calculations indicate that 90% of flowering plant species are animal-pollinated. National Science Review 10, nwad219 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwad219
  4. 4. Bishop, J., Garratt, M. P. D. & Nakagawa, S. Animal pollination increases stability of crop yield across spatial scales. Ecology Letters 25, 2034–2047 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.14069
  5. 5. Eeraerts, M. et al. Global synthesis of apple pollination research highlights general pollen limitation and positive contributions of wild bees compared to honeybees. Journal of Applied Ecology 62, 2487–2501 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.70155
  6. 6. Eeraerts, M. et al. Wild bees mediate fruit quality via seed set in highbush blueberry: A quantitative synthesis. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 394, 109872 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2025.109872
  7. 7. Magrach, A., Giménez‐García, A., Allen‐Perkins, A., Garibaldi, L. A. & Bartomeus, I. Increasing crop richness and reducing field sizes provide higher yields to pollinator‐dependent crops. Journal of Applied Ecology 60, 77–90 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.14305
  8. 8. Garibaldi, L. A., Aizen, M. A., Klein, A. M., Cunningham, S. A. & Harder, L. D. Global growth and stability of agricultural yield decrease with pollinator dependence. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 108, 5909–5914 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1012431108
  9. 9. Woodcock, B. A. et al. Meta-analysis reveals that pollinator functional diversity and abundance enhance crop pollination and yield. Nat Commun 10, 1481 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.70079
  10. 10. IPBES. The Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services on Pollinators, Pollination and Food Production (2016). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3402857
  11. 11. Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, Fauna & Flora International, University of East Anglia, & UNEP-WCMC. (2017). The pollination deficit: Towards supply chain resilience in the face of pollinator decline (p. 42). UN Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre. https://www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/system/files/documents/the-pollination-deficit.pdf
  12. 12. Institute for Economics & Peace. Ecological Threat Report 2025: Analysing Ecological Threats, Resilience & Peace. http://visionofhumanity.org/resources (2025).
  13. 13. Kambali, K. K. Ecosystem services by insect pollinators, their crisis and climate change effects. IJBS 12, (2025). https://doi.org/10.30954/2347-9655.02.2025.14
  14. 14. Meldrum, J. R., Larson, D. L., Hoelzle, T. B. & Hinck, J. E. Considering pollinators’ ecosystem services in the remediation and restoration of contaminated lands: Overview of research and its gaps. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management 20, 322–336 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1002/ieam.4808
  15. 15. Smith, M. R. et al. Pollinator deficits, food consumption, and consequences for human health: A modeling study. Environ Health Perspect 130, 127003 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP10947
  16. 16. Saturni, F. T., Jaffé, R. & Metzger, J. P. Landscape structure influences bee community and coffee pollination at different spatial scales. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 235, 1–12 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2016.10.008
  17. 17. Bravo-Monroy, L., Tzanopoulos, J. & Potts, S. G. Ecological and social drivers of coffee pollination in Santander, Colombia. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 211, 145–154 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2015.06.007
  18. 18. Moreaux, C, et al. The value of biotic pollination and dense forest for fruit set of Arabica coffee: A global assessment. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 323, 107680 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2021.107680
  19. 19. Chaplin-Kramer, R. et al. Global malnutrition overlaps with pollinator-dependent micronutrient production. Proc. R. Soc. B. 281, 20141799 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.1799
  20. 20. Ochola, A. C. et al. Global meta-analysis shows an indispensable role of pollinator diversity in promoting fruit quality. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 393, 109829 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2025.109829
  21. 21. Smith, M. R., Singh, G. M., Mozaffarian, D. & Myers, S. S. Effects of decreases of animal pollinators on human nutrition and global health: a modelling analysis. The Lancet 386, 1964–1972 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(15)61085-6
  22. 22. Timberlake, T. P. et al. Pollinators support the nutrition and income of vulnerable communities. Nature 654, 683–688 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10421-x
  23. 23. Aizen MA, Aguiar S, Biesmeijer JC, Garibaldi LA, et al. 2019. Global agricultural productivity is threatened by increasing pollinator dependence without a parallel increase in crop diversification. Global Change Biology 25: 3516–3527. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14736
  24. 24. Stein, K. et al. Bee pollination increases yield quantity and quality of cash crops in Burkina Faso, West Africa. Sci Rep 7, 17691 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-17970-2
  25. 25. Garibaldi, L. A. et al. Mutually beneficial pollinator diversity and crop yield outcomes in small and large farms. Science 351, 388–391 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aac7287
  26. 26. Raveloaritiana E, Wanger TC. 2026. Long-term agricultural diversification increases financial profitability, biodiversity, and ecosystem services: a second-order meta-analysis. Nature Communications 17:1016.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-67757-7
  27. 27. Silva, F. D. S. et al. Virtual pollination trade uncovers global dependence on biodiversity of developing countries. Sci. Adv. 7, eabe6636 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abe6636
  28. 28. Murphy, J. T., Breeze, T. D., Willcox, B., Kavanagh, S. & Stout, J. C. Globalisation and pollinators: Pollinator declines are an economic threat to global food systems. People and Nature 4, 773–785 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10314
  29. 29. Potts, S. G. et al. Safeguarding pollinators and their values to human well-being. Nature 540, 220–229 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature20588
  30. 30. López-Cubillos, S., McDonald-Madden, E., Mayfield, M. M. & Runting, R. K. Optimal restoration for pollination services increases forest cover while doubling agricultural profits. PLoS Biol 21, e3002107 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002107. NOTE: López-Cubillos et al. (2023) found that “strategic planning can capture the benefits of restoration to agricultural production through pollination services, which can lead to substantial economic benefits: up to a doubling of agricultural profits, even accounting for the lost production on restored lands”, in a case study on coffee production.
  31. 30. Tschanz, P., Albrecht, M. & Keller, T. Beyond pollination – The neglected contribution of ground-nesting bees to soil functions. Basic and Applied Ecology 84, 92–100 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2025.02.003
  32. 31. Christmann, S. Regard and protect ground‐nesting pollinators as part of soil biodiversity. Ecological Applications 32, e2564 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.2564
  33. 32. Bogdziewicz, M. et al. Reproductive collapse in European beech results from declining pollination efficiency in large trees. Global Change Biology 29, 4595–4604 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16730
  34. 33. Christmann, S. & Aw-Hassan, A. Farming with alternative pollinators (FAP)—An overlooked win-win-strategy for climate change adaptation. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, 161, 161–164 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2012.07.030
  35. 34. Ojija, F., Bacaro, G. & Mgimba, C. Contributions of Dipterans to Pollination Services and Biological Control. Entomologia Exp Applicata eea.70114 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1111/eea.70114
  36. 35. Herman-Mercer, N. M., Loehman, R. A., Toohey, R. C. & Paniyak, C. Climate- and Disturbance-Driven Changes in Subsistence Berries in Coastal Alaska: Indigenous Knowledge to Inform Ecological Inference. Hum Ecol 48, 85–99 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-020-00138-4
  37. 36. Blettler, D. C., Fagundez, G. A., & Caviglia, O. P. Contribution of honeybees to soybean yield. Apidologie, 49, 101–111 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13592-017-0532-4
  38. 37. Blettler, D. C. et al. Soybean yield is increased through complementary pollination by honey bees. J Apic Res, 63, 629-637 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1080/00218839.2022.2161219
  39. 38. da Cunha, N. L. et al. Soybean dependence on biotic pollination decreases with latitude. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, 347, 108376 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2023.108376
  40. 39. Strelin, M. M. et al. Premature pollen development hinders autonomous self-pollination and promotes insect pollination in soybean (Glycine max L.). Sci Rep, 16, 5052 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-35487-5
  41. 40. Kinneen, L. et al. Pollinators are critical for the SDGs and vice versa. SAFEGUARD Policy brief, 2022. Available at: https://www.safeguard.biozentrum.uni-wuerzburg.de/Project/PublicFileSystem/media/others/SAFEGUARD_COP15_PolicyBrief.pdf
  42. 41. Priyadarshana, T. S. et al. Crop and landscape heterogeneity increase biodiversity in agricultural landscapes: A global review and meta‐analysis. Ecology Letters 27, e14412 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.14412
  43. 42. Guinet, M. et al. Fostering temporal crop diversification to reduce pesticide use. Nat Commun 14, 7416 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-43234-x
  44. 43. Lechenet, M., Dessaint, F., Py, G., Makowski, D. & Munier-Jolain, N. Reducing pesticide use while preserving crop productivity and profitability on arable farms. Nature Plants 3, 17008 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nplants.2017.8
  45. 44. MacLaren, C. et al. Long-term evidence for ecological intensification as a pathway to sustainable agriculture. Nat Sustain 5, 770–779 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-022-00911-x
  46. 45. van der Sluijs, J. et al. Towards pollinator stewardship in all policies: Policy incoherence in the EU is a major barrier to pollinator restoration. Joint White Paper from Horizon Europe-funded projects Butterfly, VALOR, PollinERA, WildPosh, AGRI4POL, ProPollSoil, RestPoll, and Safeguard. Advances in Pollinator Research. Advances in Pollinator Research (preprint, 2026). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20715670

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