International Initiatives

International Initiatives

Having recognized the decline of pollinators, and its effect on agricultural biodiversity and sustainable agriculture, at the Fifth Conference of Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity in 2000, an International Initiative for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Pollinators (also known as the International Pollinator Initiative - IPI) was established (COP decision V/5, section ). COP V/5 requested the development of a plan of action, and in April 2002, the Sixth Conference of Parties established the plan of Action of the IPI.

The aim of the IPI is to promote coordinated action worldwide to:

  • Monitor pollinator decline, its causes and its impact on pollination services;
  • Address the lack of taxonomic information on pollinators;
  • Assess the economic value of pollination and the economic impact of the decline of pollination services; and
  • Promote the conservation and the restoration and sustainable use of pollinator diversity in agriculture and related ecosystems.

The Plan of Action of the IPI aims to do this through four basic Elements:

Element 1: Assessment

  • Operational objective:
    • To provide comprehensive analysis of:
    • Status and trends of the world’s pollinator diversity
    • The underlying causes of their decline
    • Local knowledge of management of pollinator diversity
  •  Activities:
    • Monitor the status and trends of pollinators
    • Assess the economic value of pollinators
    • Assess the state of scientific and indigenous knowledge on pollinator conservation

 Element 2: Adaptive Management

  •  Operational objective:
    • To identify management practices. technologies and policies that promote the positive and mitigate the negative impacts of agriculture on pollinator diversity and activity
  • Activities:
    • Case studies
    • Identify and promote information dissemination on cost-effective practices and technologies, and related policy and incentive measures
    • Promote methods of sustainable agriculture that employ management practices, technologies and policies to achieve objective

Element 3: Capacity Building

  • Operational objective:
    • To strengthen capacities of farmers, indigenous and local communities, and their organizations and other stakeholders, to manage pollinator diversity so as to increase its benefits, and to promote awareness and responsible action
  • Activities:
    • Promote awareness about the value of pollinator diversity and the multiple goods and services it provides for sustainable productivity...
    • Identify and promote possible improvements in the policy environment...
    •  Promote enhanced capabilities to manage pollinators diversity at local level...
    •  Build taxonomic capacity...
    • Develop tools and mechanisms for international and regional information exchange...

 Element 4: Mainstreaming

  • Operational objective:
  • To support the development of national plans or strategies for the conservation and sustainable use of pollinator diversity and to promote their mainstreaming and integration in sectoral and cross-sectoral plans and programmes
  • Activities:
    •  Integrate considerations of pollinators diversity, and related dimensions of agricultural biodiversity... into:
      • biodiversity strategies and action plans and planning processes in the agriculture sector
      • formal education programmes at all levels
    • Support the development or adaptation of relevant systems of information, early warning and communication...
    • strengthen national institutions to support taxonomy of bees and other pollinators...