Mapping the dependency of crops on pollinators in Belgium

Because of their pollinating activity, insect pollinators provide an ecosystem service that is essential to ecosystems and our economy. A large majority of the flowering plants we consume depends on it. In turn, the decline in pollinators observed for the last decades in Belgium as in many other European countries threatens agriculture and human well-being. Here we evaluate the pollination service at a country-wide scale through the estimated value of the contribution of insect pollination to the production used for human consumption in Belgium using crop dependency ratios. We then mapped the... Mehr ...