valuing insect pollination services with cost of replacement评估昆虫授粉服务与重置成本.pdfVIP

Valuing Insect Pollination Services with Cost of Replacement 1 2 3 Mike H. Allsopp , Willem J. de Lange , Ruan Veldtman * 1 Plant Protection Research Institute, Agricultural Research Council, Pretoria, South Africa, 2 Environmental and Resource Economics Group, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Stellenbosch, South Africa, 3 South African National Biodiversity Institute, Kirstenbosch Research Centre, Cape Town, South Africa Abstract Value estimates of ecosystem goods and services are useful to justify the allocation of resources towards conservation, but inconclusive estimates risk unsustainable resource allocations. Here we present replacement costs as a more accurate value estimate of insect pollination as an ecosystem service, although this method could also be applied to other services. The importance of insect pollination to agriculture is unequivocal. However, whether this service is largely provided by wild pollinators (genuine ecosystem service) or managed pollinators (commercial service), and which of these requires immediate action amidst reports of pollinator decline, remains contested. If crop pollination is used to argue for biodiversity conservation, clear distinction should be made between values of managed- and wild pollination services. Current methods either under-estimate or over-estimate the pollination service value, and make use of criticised general insect and managed pollinator dependence factors. We apply the theoretical concept of ascribing a value to a service by calculating the cost to replace it, as a novel way of valuing wild and managed pollination services. Adjusted insect and managed pollinator dependence factors were used to estimate the cost of replacing insect- and managed pollination serv