Globally, agricultural production systems are under pressure to meet multiple challenges: to sustain or increase production from the same area of land and reduce negative impacts on the environment amid uncertainties resulting from climate change. As farming systems adapt to meet these challenges, one of agriculture's greatest assets in meeting them is nature itself. Many of the ecosystem services provided by nature � such as pollination � directly contribute to agricultural production. beneficial insects such as pollinators may be heavily impacted by pesticides.  Concerns with the impacts of pesticides on pollinators has been expressed by the 193 countries that are signatory to the Convention on Biological Diversity, through their adoption of the International Pollinator Initiative.  Additional focus on pollinators and the threats they face will be addressed as well by an assessment on �Pollination and Pollinators Contributing to Food Production� being carried out this year through the new Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, with its partners, contributes to understanding the context of pesticide exposure of key crop pollinators � honey bees, but also wild bee species � through the development of risk profiles for cropping systems in Brazil, Kenya and the Netherlands.

?United Nations/FAO-facilitated international pollinator initiative

248th National Meeting (2014)

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