Evolution of agricultural vulnerability in europe confronted with pollinator decline: a case study comparing germany and spain
Evolution de la vulnérabilité de l'agriculture européenne face à un déclin des insectes pollinisateurs : une étude de cas comparative entre l'Allemagne et l'Espagne.
Résumé
Here we developed economic valuations as indicators of the impact of insect pollinators on agriculture. We calculated the value of their contribution to agriculture, crop vulnerability and the social welfare loss due to their decline and we assessed the evolution of those indicators under the ALARM scenarios. As agricultural profi les differ between countries, we compared the impact of insect pollinator decline in two countries that are both important European agricultural producers, but also appear quite contrasted: Germany and Spain. The fi rst step was to valuate the contribution of insect pollination to their national agriculture. We then quantifi ed the vulnerability of national agriculture confronted with pollinator decline. For that purpose, we evaluated the economic loss from the pollinator disappearance in each of these two countries based on the dependence ratio of individual crops to pollinators based upon Klein et al. (2007). The second step was to estimate the welfare loss at the national scale. To do so, we estimated the consumer surplus loss assuming that producers might adapt at no cost to pollinator decline. In the last part, we discuss these indicators and analyze the possible responses aiming to prevent or alleviate the consequences of pollinator decline.