Context: Around 40 per cent of invertebrate pollinator species — particularly bees and butterflies — face extinction across the world, according to the FAO.
About the Pollinator week:

• The Pollinator Week (June 22-28) was initiated by non-profit Pollinator Partnership and the United States’ Senate in 2007.
• It is observed to make people increasingly aware of how this activity affects lives and livelihoods across the world.

About Pollinators

• A pollinator is an animal that causes plants to make fruit or seeds.
• They do this by moving pollen from one part of the flower of a plant to another part and this pollen then fertilizes the plant.
• There are two categories of pollinators: invertebrates and vertebrates.
• Well-known invertebrate pollinators include bees, moths, flies, wasps, beetles and butterflies.
• The vertebrate pollinators include monkeys, rodents, lemurs, tree squirrels and birds.
• More than 180,000 plant species, including 1,200 crop varieties, across the world, depend on pollinators to reproduce.
• But the little creatures, like the bees and the butterflies, have increasingly been under threat.

Decline in numbers

• Around 40 % of invertebrate pollinator species — particularly bees and butterflies — face extinction across the world.
• Around 16.5 % of vertebrate pollinators are threatened with extinction.

Major causes for the decline
The pollinators are declining as a result of an increase in human activities:

• Land-use change and fragmentation.
• Changes in agricultural practices including the use of chemical pesticides, fungicides and insecticides.
• Change in the cropping pattern and crops like the cultivation of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and mono-cropping.
• High environmental pollution from heavy metals and nitrogen.
• Growth of invasive alien species.

Road Ahead

• Pollination contributes to one-third of the world’s agricultural crop production and pollinators can increase crop yield by 24% in small diverse farms and its reduction can pose an immediate threat to mankind’s food and nutrition.
• People should leave some areas under natural habitation, promote hedgerows, flower trees and shrub plant diversity, intercropping and try to be less dependent on toxic chemicals and pesticides.
• Governments should take proactive steps for bee conservation, recognise apiculture (bee-keeping) as a subject for advanced research and promote it among farmer communities as an additional source of livelihood, which will be a win-win situation for both the bees and humans.