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Moving beyond the known: Identifying conceptual gaps, emerging threats, and novel opportunities for global pollinator conservation
Summary
Bees, butterflies, and other pollinators are declining not just from well-known problems like pesticides and habitat loss, but also from newer threats scientists are just starting to track—including microplastics, artificial light at night, and heavy metal pollution. This matters because pollinators support roughly a third of the food we eat, so protecting them (through new technology and smarter land-use planning) directly protects our food supply. The researchers, who gathered input from experts worldwide, stress that catching these emerging threats early gives us a better shot at fixing them before they cause serious damage.
As a vital component of global food security and ecosystem health, pollinators are essential for sustaining both natural systems and human populations, yet their numbers continue to decline despite extensive conservation efforts. Although well-known threats such as habitat loss, pesticides, and climate change remain serious concerns, focusing only on well-known threats could overshadow the necessity of re-orienting conservation agendas to address new pressures and opportunities created by rapidly shifting environmental, technological, and socio-political landscapes, which have yet to be fully integrated into conservation agendas. We synthesise the findings of a global rapid assessment that used expert elicitation to identify urgent emerging global threats and opportunities for pollinators. Emerging threats stemmed from diverse sources, including novel forms of pollution (such as microplastics, artificial light, heavy metals, and nitrogen oxides) and the compounding effects of well-known stressors. Conversely, significant opportunities for pollinator conservation were found in the strategic use of novel tools and technology for targeted conservation, and in solutions that benefit multiple ecosystem services through novel land uses. Further research into these key areas will allow us to act early on these findings to better protect pollinators in the future and preserve the benefits they provide for people and nature.