February 7, 1996
Campaign Draws Attention to "Forgotten Pollinators"
Agricultural production could be threatened if populations of
bees and other pollinators continue to decline, according to
the Forgotten Pollinators Campaign, a recently launched
effort to educate the public about pollinators' critical
economic and agricultural importance. The Campaign emphasizes
North American agriculture and ecology, but advocates greater
awareness and protection of pollinators worldwide. Most
fruits and vegetables consumed globally grow as a result of
pollination, the process by which pollen is carried from one
flower to another, thereby increasing the chances for
fertilization and fruit production. According to the
campaign's literature, a recent survey of wild plants
documented that over 60% of the plant species studied may
suffer reduced seed set due to pollinator scarcity.
The Campaign, initiated by the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
(ASDM) in Tucson, Arizona, aims to create common cause among
farmers, pesticide reform activists, beekeepers, plant and
animal conservationists and green belt proponents, all of
whom may be concerned about declining pollinators --
especially honey bees -- and the lack of policies aimed at
protecting them. According to Gary Paul Nabhan, a crop
ecologist and Director of Science for the Campaign, pesticide
use, disease, habitat fragmentation, and the arrival of
Africanized bees in North America have dramatically reduced
honey bee populations in the U.S., by as much as 25% since
1990.
Honey bees and the 4,000-5,000 species of wild bees native to
North America pollinate 60 major crops in the U.S., including
potatoes, melons, cotton, onions and almonds. According to
the Forgotten Pollinators Campaign, the pollination services
provided by wild and domestic bees are 40-50 times more
valuable than the market price of all honey produced in the
U.S. Steve Buchmann, a specialist with the U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA) bee laboratory in Tucson, Arizona and a
research associate at the Campaign, recently stated that the
hidden value to crop pollination by bees could be as high as
US$10 billion. Other significant pollinators include flies,
butterflies, moths, beetles, hummingbirds and bats.
To illustrate the impacts of declining pollinator populations
on agricultural production, Nabhan points to cranberry bogs,
where as many as 20 million flowers bloom on each acre, but
less than a third of the flowers develop into ripened fruit
in years when pollinators are scarce. In 1970 widespread
organophosphate spraying (mostly fenitrothion) for spruce
budworms decimated native bee populations, causing cranberry
yields to plummet from 5.5 million pounds in 1969 to 1.5
million pounds in 1970. More recently, the California almond
industry has begun borrowing bee hives from other states to
compensate for pollinator scarcity, and the 1995 New York
pumpkin crop suffered from a paucity of native bees.
Wild pollinators are often more vulnerable to pesticides than
domestic honey bees, and the Campaign calls for more
stringent controls of toxic chemical applications near their
nesting and foraging sites and for better training of
pesticide applicators in monitoring for pollinators.
According to the Campaign, pollinators receive only piecemeal
attention at university agricultural programs and government
agencies. The Campaign calls for placing greater emphasis on
pollinator diversity and ecology at agricultural schools.
They also urge USDA, the U.S. National Biological Service and
similar agencies in other countries to take comprehensive
inventories of crop pollinators and pollinators of keystone
plant species in wildlands. Such inventories would allow for
more accurate appraisals of the costs to agriculture due to
pollinator loss inflicted by pesticide use and habitat
destruction. Presently, the economic value of pollination
services are generally not taken into account when government
agencies assess the value of protecting wild species or the
costs of maintaining agricultural yields.
Source/Contact: The Forgotten Pollinators Campaign, Arizona-
Sonora Desert Museum, 2021 N. Kinney Road, Tucson, AZ 85743;
phone (520) 883-3006; fax (520) 883-2500; email
fpollen@azstarnet.com.
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