The Network for Sustainable Agriculture (SAN) warns companies and farmers against underestimating the consequences of the disappearance of natural pollinators. According to a study, 75 percent of agricultural raw materials depend on pollinators. Supply chains are threatening to collapse in some cases if inadequate action is not taken.
75 percent of the world's agricultural raw materials are dependent on pollination. The decline in natural pollinators therefore has a direct effect on the cultivation of cocoa, coffee (Robusta), kiwi, vanilla, melon and avocado, for example. However, the majority of companies purchasing these raw materials are hardly aware of the possible consequences for their own supply chains. This is the conclusion of a study by the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), Fauna & Flora International (FFI), UN Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) and University of East Anglia (UEA).
Awareness raising and appropriate measures
About 50 percent of all pollination worldwide is carried out by bees (including bumble bees). The rest are birds, bats or other insects. According to the study, five to eight percent of global agricultural raw material cultivation threatens to collapse if the number of natural pollinators continues to decline and in some regions even disappear completely. These negative effects in turn are likely to lead to increased poverty and deforestation.
Pesticides only one of several causes
According to IPBES (Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services), the main causes for the decline in pollinators are the loss of habitat, food and water, the use of pesticides and herbicides, the intrusion of foreign species into intact ecosystems and changes in temperatures and rainfall. In the tropics, the effects are particularly noticeable; after all, all the causes mentioned can be observed in these often species-rich regions. In Central and South America alone, there are over 1,000 different bee species.
As the first standardsetting organisation, the SAN has taken into account the effects of agriculture on pollinators in the development of the sustainability standard (known as the 2017 SAN standard). Since the end of 2017, the SAN has concentrated on solutions outside of certification. When it comes to pollination, this means training producers and drawing the attention of producers and traders, among other things. "Such studies guide our activities outside of certification. We are intensifying our cooperation with partners such as the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership in order to increasingly integrate this approach into agricultural supply chains," de Freitas said.
Source: Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN)/Network for Sustainable Agriculture