Conserving wild pollinators and increasing food security by strengthening the sustainable management of company supply chains
Conserving wild pollinators and increasing food security by strengthening the sustainable management of company supply chains
A diverse community of pollinators provides the most effective and stable crop pollination, but research suggests that wild pollinators are in decline. Commercial agriculture and crop procurement companies have a vested interest in maintaining pollinator services, but are currently unresponsive to this issue. Focusing on the procurement of pollinator-dependent crops, the purpose of this project, which brings together UNEP-WCMC, FFI, the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership and the University of East Anglia, is to catalyse private sector action to support the conservation of wild pollinator populations. For instance, this will promote good practice to ensure sustainable sourcing of pollinator-dependent crops. Project outputs will be shared with national level policy makers in targeted countries.
This project is funded by the CCI Collaborative Fund for Conservation.
Project Aims
Focusing on the procurement of pollinator-dependent crops, the purpose of this project is to catalyse private sector action to support the conservation of wild pollinator populations by:
- Improving the understanding of pollination risk within supply chains, articulating a business case for companies to act on the issue and identifying the role that they can play in reversing a downward trend in wild pollinators
- Increasing access to information on pollination, bringing policy and research into the heart of corporate sustainability decision making
- Promoting good practice to ensure sustainable sourcing of pollinator-dependent crops by the private sector
Key Activities
- Establish commodities at greatest risk from pollinator decline/loss and engage company partners with potential risk from pollinator decline in their supply chains
- Work with 2-3 pilot company partners to strengthen integration of approaches to avoid, minimise and manage impacts on pollinators within sourcing policies
- Convene a stakeholder workshop to review current activity in this field, build the business case for corporate engagement on pollination and enable a cross sectoral learning between pollinator science and business
- The project will culminate in 2017 with a short written report on the project findings with recommendations for strengthening private sector action on pollinator conservation
Conservation Impact
Conservation outcomes of the project will include:
- An effective business case built and supported by business of the value of wild pollinators to their business and society
- Information on pollinator ecology and management approaches more readily accessible to the private sector to support decision making and better practice and shared with relevant national policy makers
- Stronger links made between policy priorities on pollinators, corporate best practice and conservation outcomes
- A roadmap to deliver more sustainable procurement policies with explicit requirements relating to wild pollinator conservation and the preservation of pollination services for multiple beneficiaries
Outputs
- A workshop convening company partners, certification schemes, policymakers and pollinator experts
- A final project report at the conclusion of the project presented at various fora
- A set of dissemination materials for company partners to present at the wide range of industry fora they attend. Typically this includes slide decks for presentation at meetings, social media messaging (e.g. twitter, facebook) and, where appropriate, a press release on key project findings
- A peer reviewed paper of project findings
- Information on targeted vulnerable commodities provided to update the FAO Pollination Information Management System
Project Overview
Project team
Related Resources
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The pollination deficit: Towards supply chain resilience in the face of pollinator decline
As a society we are increasingly dependent on pollinators. The proportion of global agricultural production that depends on pollinators has increased four-fold since 1961. Much of this dependence is linked to wild pollinators. Where data exists, we are seeing evidence of wild pollinator decline. Over 16 per cent of vertebrate pollinators are threatened with global…
The Pollinator Deficit: Towards supply chain resilience in the face of pollinator decline – Business risk resource pack
Business risk resource pack produced by the project team for the Collaborative Fund project Conserving wild pollinators and increasing food security by strengthening the sustainable management of company supply chains. This project was funded by the CCI Collaborative Fund. For more information about the project, please visit the project page.