The value of pollinator-friendly practices: Synergies between natural and anthropogenic assets

Abstract

Sustainable livelihoods and human well-being depend on multiple anthropogenic and natural assets (stock of materials or information that exists in a point in time). However, the simultaneous and multiple impacts of land-use decisions on these assets are often ignored. In this study, we focus on pollinator-friendly practices (PFP: practices that intend to increase the abundance and diversity of natural pollinators) to quantify the multi-dimensional value of land-use decisions and to address potential synergies and trade-offs among assets. We combined socio-economic and ecological methods to quantify natural (pollinator richness) and anthropogenic (human, physical, social, and financial) assets in 30 coffee plantations with a gradient in the number of PFP in eastern Brazil. We found that an increase in the number of PFP resulted in both enhanced flower-visitor richness (natural asset) and coffee yield (financial asset). Farmers who dedicated more time to field work than to administrative work applied more PFP on their farms. Our results highlight that land-use decisions oriented toward enhancing natural assets can also provide the highest levels of financial assets. This provides a general framework for efforts toward ecological intensification that can be employed in other regions.