Industrial Agriculture Threatens Native Pollinators and Biodiversity

Industrial Agriculture Threatens Native Pollinators and Biodiversity, but Agroecology Holds Solutions 

“[Agroecology] aims to protect pollinators not only by its effects in agroecosystems, but also by reducing poverty and improving people’s livelihoods, by both recovering local knowledges and developing local research technologies as well as implementing territorial planning and [agroecological] policies considering the needs of local communities”

• Industrial agriculture has been recognized among the main threats to native insect pollinators, and has been linked to a decline in pollinator populations,  richness, and visitation.
• Conversely, agroecology, the term applied to the revitalisation, practice, and dispersal of traditional ecological knowledge and its applications in agriculture, strives to create resilient, diversified agricultural systems with low external inputs and increased self-reliance.
• Authors used a case study from Chile to present strategies for sustainable food production and pollinator conservation in biodiversity hotspots (highly endemic biogeographic regions threatened by human activity), which often overlap with prime agricultural zones.
• The authors suggest four pillars to help guide changes in food production and protect pollinators. These include land sharing, restoration, and preservation; internal inputs; localized research and technology; and territorial planning and agroecological policies.
• Authors also suggest specific action items to build knowledge and promote agroecology, including: performing localized studies to understand biodiversity and describe species; prioritizing and support of small-scale, agroecological farms; developing local sustainability standards for agricultural businesses; forming international legal frameworks which recognize and protect local diversity; and a general shift towards truly sustainable, local, sovereign, community-based, ecosystem-centric food production. 

To read the full article by Patricia A. Henríquez-Piskulich and colleagues here.  
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From "This Month in Conservation Science", August 2021, Virginia Working Landscapes (VWL)