Who are the Pollinators?
The vast majority of pollinator species are wild, including more than 20,000 species of bees, some flies, butterflies, moths, wasps, beetles, thrips, birds, bats and other vertebrates.
Honey bees (Apis mellifera) are particularly important as pollinators of food crops. They are the most widespread managed pollinator in the world. It is estimated that globally, there are about 81 million hives producing an estimated 1.6million tonnes of honey annually (IPBES, 2016). In Australia, by contrast, in 2014-15 there were an estimated 13,000 registered beekeepers operating 448,000 hives (ABARES, 2016) representing around 0.5% of global managed hives.
Although the relative contribution of each pollinator varies significantly according to crop and location, crop yields and/or quality depend on both the diversity and abundance of pollinators and pollinator diversity contributes to crop pollination even when managed species (eg honey bees) are in high abundance.