Pesticides and Bees:Ecological-Economic Modelling of Bee Populations on Farmland

Ciaran Ellis, Nick Hanley, Adam Kleczkowski and David Goulson
Additional contact information
Ciaran Ellis: University of Stirling
Adam Kleczkowski: University of Stirling
David Goulson: University of Sussex

Discussion Papers in Environment and Development Economics from University of St. Andrews, School of Geography and Sustainable Development

Abstract: Production of insect-pollinated crops typically relies on both pesticide use and pollination, leading to a potential conflict between these two inputs. In this paper we combine ecological modelling with economic analysis to investigate the effects of pesticide use on wild and commercial bees, whilst allowing farmers to partly offset the negative effects of pesticides on bee populations by creating more on-farm bee habitat. Farmers have incentives to invest in creating wild bee habitat to increase pollination inputs. However, the optimal allocation of on-farm habitat strongly depends on the negative effects of pesticides, with a threshold-like behaviour at a critical level of the impairment. When this threshold is crossed, the population of wild bees becomes locally extinct and their availability to pollinate breaks down. We also show that availability of commercial bees masks the decrease in pollination services which would otherwise incentivise farmers to conserve the wild pollinator population, therefore indirectly leading to local wild bee extinction. The paper demonstrat es the importance of combining ecological modelling with economics to study sustainability in the provision of ecosystem services in agro-ecosystems.

Keywords: pollination; pesticides; wild bees; commercial bees; ecological-economic modelling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q12 Q57 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37 pages
Date: 2016-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-env
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Related works:
Journal Article: Pesticides and bees: Ecological-economic modelling of bee populations on farmland (2017)
Working Paper: Pesticides and Bees: ecological-economic modelling of bee populations on farmland (2016)
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