Valuing Insects – International Day of Insects
On 23 April 2026, the first International Day of Insects, under the theme “From Crisis to Connection”, takes places in Leuven, Belgium. The special event is organised by the Leuven Nature and Biodiversity Council and Insect Respect. The International Day of Insects highlights the value of insects to humans while calling for greater appreciation of insects. At corsus, insects play a crucial role during the ongoing project with the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN). The project’s aim is to analyse monetary indicators for pollinator services.
Pollination is an essential ecosystem service, which can be carried out by the plant itself (autogamy) or through cross-pollination (xenogamy). In cross-pollination, a distinction is made between wind pollination (anemophyily) and animal pollination (zoophily). The majority of pollination services through animals are provided by insects, particularly bees (wild bees, honey bees, bumblebees). However, other hymenoptera such as digger wasps, other wasp species and hornets, as well as diptera (particularly hoverflies), butterflies, beetles and bugs also contribute to pollination. Additional pollinators – particularly in other regions of the world – include mammals such as bats and flying foxes, or birds, e.g. hummingbirds. for pollination, others can be pollinated by numerous different ones.[i] Pollination is of particular importance for wild and cultivated plants:
- 80 per cent of wild plants rely, at least partially, on pollination by animals for their reproduction[ii] and
- more than 70 per cent of cultivated plants are at least partially dependent on pollination services[iii].
In Germany, the economic value of pollination-dependent cultivated plants is approximately €3.9 billion€[iv].
Quelle: Insekt-Respect
“Insects are not just useful – they are essential to our ecosystem!” states Dr. Ulrike Eberle, biologist and managing partner of corsus.
These numbers alone clearly show what a vital role insects play in our food supply. The economic value of additional ecosystem services that depend on insect pollination, such as flowering landscapes for recreational purposes are not included here. Specifically, assigning monetary value to the services insects provide can help restore humanity’s connection to them. In doing so, economic indicators for pollination services can raise awareness and sensitize people to the urgent and essential need for insect protection.
More information about this project: https://www.corsus.de/en/news/references/monetary-biodiversity-indicators/
[i] Waser, N. M., Chittka, L., Price, M. V., Williams, N. M., & Ollerton, J. (1996). Generalization in Pollination Systems, and Why it Matters. Ecology, 77(4), 1043–1060. https://doi.org/10.2307/2265575
[ii] Ollerton, J., Winfree, R., & Tarrant, S. (2011). How many flowering plants are pollinated by animals? Oikos, 120(3), 321–326. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0706.2010.18644.x
[iii] Klein, A.-M., Vaissière, B. E., Cane, J. H., Steffan-Dewenter, I., Cunningham, S. A., Kremen, C., & Tscharntke, T. (2007). Importance of pollinators in changing landscapes for world crops. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 274(1608), 303–313. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2006.3721; Baylis, K., Lichtenberg, E. M., & Lichtenberg, E. (2021). Economics of Pollination. Annual Review of Resource Economics, 13(1), 335–354. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-resource-101420-110406
[iv] Oré Barrios, C., Mäurer, E., Lippert, C., & Dabbert, S. (2017). Eine Ökonomische Analyse des Imkerei-Sektors in Deutschland: An Economic Analysis of the Beekeeping Sector in Germany. [Schlussbericht]. https://orgprints.org/id/eprint/32437/1/32437_15NA073_dabbert_uni_hohenheim_analyse_Imkerei.pdf
