A new EPA-supported "Pollival" study led by Trinity claims that both the market and non-market values of pollinators in Ireland are currently greatly underestimated. The report has shown that even if we just consider locally produced food crops, loss of pollinators in Ireland could risk a €20-59 million hit per year in crop production.

Pollinators are important to society for a lot of reasons – they ensure productivity in many of our fruit and vegetable crops, contribute to food security and healthy diets, and enable consumer choice. They are also beneficial for other commercially important plants (including feedstocks for livestock, fibres and biofuels).

In PoshBee, Professor in Botany in Trinity College Dublin’s School of Natural Sciences, Jane Stout, is leading the development and implementation of a workpackage that will see researchers conduct fieldwork across eight countries in Europe to assess the real levels of exposure that bees have to chemical, nutritional and pathogen stressors. In Ireland, this work will be conducted in collaboration with Teagasc and the Federation of Irish Beekeepers Associations (FIBKA). 

A pollinator in action. Photo by Leonardo Jarro from Pexels.

News source: Trinity News and Events