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This publication is categorised as a CSO Frontier Series Output. Particular care must be taken when interpreting the statistics in this release as it may use new methods which are under development and/or data sources which may be incomplete, for example new administrative data sources.
In 2018, crops that were at least partly dependent on wild pollinators (excluding for example managed bees such as honeybees and imported bumblebees) produced a yield of 84,900 tonnes. Of this yield, 19,500 tonnes (23%) were estimated to be the result of wild insect pollination (i.e. the crop pollination service provided by ecosystems).
The ecosystems which provided the crop pollination service were Forests & Woodlands at 8,900 tonnes (46%) of the total pollinator-dependent yield, Grasslands at 6,000 tonnes (31%), Croplands at 4,400 tonnes (23%), Inland Wetlands at 100 tonnes (1%), and Heathlands & Shrubs at 100 tonnes (1%).
Of the wild pollinator-dependent yield, 10,700 tonnes were fruits, 4,300 tonnes were oil-bearing crops, 3,900 tonnes were pulses, and 600 tonnes were vegetables.
Wild pollinators accounted for 51% of the yield from wild pollinator-dependent fruits. This figure was 11% for oil-bearing crops, 18% for pulses, and 27% for vegetables.
Of the 22,000 hectares of land growing wild pollinator-dependent crops in 2018, less than half (9,700 hectares) were within range of wild pollinator habitats. Therefore, 12,300 hectares of pollinator-dependent crops were not within range of a wild pollinator habitat.
This corresponds with the 17,800 tonnes of crops which were not produced due to an absence of suitable habitat for wild pollinators in 2018.
Of the ecosystem types which were within the maximum pollinator flight distance of 1km of pollinator-dependent crops, 67% of Heathlands & Shrubs, and 41% of Forests & Woodlands could provide suitable habitat for wild pollinators. By contrast, this was only 2% for Grasslands.
It is important to state that the crop pollination service modelled here is only the contribution made by wild pollinators to crop provision. Pollination is more broadly regarded as a regulating ecosystem service because it contributes to the maintenance of all ecosystems and not just the provision of crops. The physical flow of the general pollinator service would therefore likely be orders of magnitude greater as it indirectly contributes to various other services provided by these ecosystems. The service also does not consider pollinator habitats located in gardens or allotments, nor does it account for any wild pollinator-dependent yields arising from them. Finally, it is worth noting that the service does not consider crop pollination by managed bees (e.g. honeybees from apiaries) or imported bees (e.g. imported bumblebees). The latter are commonly used in Ireland to pollinate crops grown under cover, such as strawberries and tomatoes. Therefore, the yields from these crops were not included in these accounts.
The crop geospatial data, while extensive, may still not fully capture all pollinator-dependent crops. Consequently, the pollination service may be slightly underestimated. This could be further caused by the spatial resolution of the ecosystem geospatial data source, which precludes the model from accounting for habitat provision by urban gardens, for example. The model also does not consider pollinator species distribution data, which would improve the overall model accuracy. Finally, the model assumes that the unmet demand for the crop pollination service can neither be partially nor fully provided by managed or imported bees. (See Model Limitations Section of Background Notes for more information.)
Cropland as an ecosystem type contributed the highest yield per hectare primarily because the geospatial model attributes the pollinator-dependent crops which are mainly found in this ecosystem type with relatively high floral attractiveness scores. This is because the pollinator-dependent crops themselves are important pollinator food sources, which the model regards as a positive predictor of a pollinator habitat. In other words, cropland ecosystems tend to provide a better wild pollinator food source compared with others and consequently they may be regarded as good habitat for pollinators.
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (14 January 2025) published Ecosystem Services Accounts – Crop Pollination 2018.
This release is part of the CSO’s Frontier Series which means care must be taken when interpreting these results as methodologies may change and data sources may be incomplete. This is the first time the CSO has compiled ecosystem accounts for the crop pollination ecosystem service for Ireland. The CSO is developing methodologies to estimate the contribution of wild pollinators to crop provision.
It is important to state that this release only examines the ecosystem contribution made by wild pollinators to crop provision. It does not include crop yields which are dependent on imported or managed bees (e.g. managed honeybees), or the much larger, regulatory ecosystem service which wild insects provide through their pollination of wild plants (See Editor’s Note below).
Commenting on the release, Sam Belton, Statistician in the Ecosystem Accounts Section, said:
“This CSO Frontier release estimates, for the first time, the contribution made by wild pollinators to the yield of crops in Ireland. Through their provision of suitable pollinator habitat, the contribution is provided by different ecosystem types. These accounts, which are for the reference year 2018, quantify the physical flow of the crop pollination service from ecosystems (See Introduction Chapter for more information).
This release is based on the results of a geospatial model which was used to predict the location and suitability of ecosystems to provide habitat for wild pollinators. Based on whether these ecosystems were located within the maximum pollinator flight distance of pollinator-dependent crops, a yield was derived which was assumed to be attributable to wild insect pollination. Given that the geographical location of the habitat was predicted, the 2018 ecosystem extent map could then be used to assess the contribution of different ecosystem types to the crop pollination service.
Ecosystem Contribution to the Crop Pollination Service
Through their provision of suitable pollinator habitat, the ecosystem types which supplied the crop pollination service in 2018 were Forests & Woodlands (8,900 tonnes), Grasslands (6,000 tonnes), Croplands (4,400 tonnes), Inland Wetlands (100 tonnes), and Heathlands & Shrubs (100 tonnes). This included 10,700 tonnes of fruits, 4,300 tonnes of oil-bearing crops, 3,900 tonnes of pulses, and 600 tonnes of vegetables.
The total yield of these crops in 2018 was 84,900 tonnes. Of this, 20,900 tonnes were fruits, 40,300 tonnes were from oil-bearing crops, 21,500 tonnes were pulses, and 2,200 tonnes were vegetables. Therefore, the contribution from ecosystems ranged from 51% of the yield from fruit crops to 11% of the yield from oil-bearing crops. Altogether, ecosystems supplied a 30% yield increase to wild pollinator-dependent crops through the provision of wild pollinator habitat (See Chapter on Services Accounts).
Ecosystems Providing the Crop Pollination Service
Discounting ecosystems other than those located within 1km (i.e. the maximum pollinator flight distance used in the model) from the pollinator-dependent crops, the total area of ecosystems which had potential to provide the crop pollination service in 2018 was 542,000 hectares (8% of Ireland’s total terrestrial and transitional ecosystem area in 2018). Of this, only 15,800 hectares were identified as being moderate-to-high suitability for providing wild pollinator habitat. This included 8,500 hectares of Forests & Woodlands, 6,100 hectares of Grasslands, and 400 hectares each of Croplands, Heathlands & Shrubs and Inland Wetlands (See Chapter on Habitat Suitability).
Of the ecosystems adjacent to or including wild pollinator-dependent crops, 67% of assessed Heathlands & Shrubs and 41% of assessed Forests & Woodlands were identified as providing suitable pollinator habitats. By contrast, this was only 2% for assessed Grasslands.
The three ecosystem types providing the highest pollinator-dependent yield per hectare were Croplands (11 tonnes per hectare), Inland Wetlands (1 tonne per hectare), and Forests & Woodlands (1 tonne per hectare).
Unmet Demand for Crop Pollination by Ecosystems
Of the 22,000 hectares of land growing wild pollinator-dependent crops in 2018, 12,300 hectares were not within the maximum flight distance of a suitable pollinator habitat and therefore had no added yield from wild pollinators. Based on observed studies of pollinator yield contribution factors (which range from 5% to 95%), the maximum theoretical contribution by wild insect pollinators was 37,300 tonnes. Therefore, because of insufficient pollinator habitat, the potential yield not realised was 17,800 tonnes. This means the total theoretical yield of wild pollinator-dependent crops that could have been realised if all crops were within range of a suitable pollinator habitat was 102,700 tonnes. See Chapter on Services Accounts)."
The CSO are grateful for the invaluable input from national pollination experts from the Trinity College Dublin Botany Department, the University College Dublin Agriculture and Food Science Centre, and the National Biodiversity Data Centre.
The CSO would also like to acknowledge the data sourced from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), Tailte Éireann, and Met Éireann which were crucial in the development of this release.