Agricultural Weblog

Back in October 2006 the Royal Society published an online version of a comprehensive study that was the first attempt to put a global value on pollinators. It attracted some attention back then, at The Worsted Witch, who got it from Science Daily. We missed it at the time1, but as the paper version has just been published, that’s enough reason to revisit it2.

Very briefly, the article shows that 87 of the leading 115 crops depend to varyng degres on animal pollination. These 87 crops represent 35% of the world’s food production. While a few food plants are pollinated by birds or bats, the most important pollinators are, of course, honeybees, domesticated and wild. This is particularly troublesome in light of the various threats to the domesticated bee. The authors conclude that agricultural intensification jeopardizes wild bee populations and plead for more research into landscape management practices that would enhance wild bee viability.

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The Global Trees Campaign says that 131 of 245 wild Magnoliaceae are threatened worldwide. According to this press release from BGCI:

” The significance of this potentially catastrophic loss lies not only in the threat to the genetic diversity of the family, but

also because they are a highly sensitive indicator of the well-being of the forests in which they are found. Magnolias are among the most ancient groups of flowering plants and have long been cultivated by mankind.” You can download a PDF of the new Magnoliaceae Red List.

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