Species → Western honey bee (wild colonies)
Western honey bee (wild colonies)
Apis mellifera
What if it disappeared?
Impact HighIf pollinators — honey bees and wild bees combined — disappeared, a service currently valued at €153 billion per year worldwide, or 9.5% of the value of agricultural production intended for human food, would disappear with them.
DocumentedDetail
Gallai, N., Salles, J.M., Settele, J. et Vaissière, B.E. (2009). Economic Valuation of the Vulnerability of World Agriculture Confronted with Pollinator Decline. Ecological Economics, 68(3), 810–821.
The authors quantify the economic contribution of insect pollination to global agriculture, isolating crops most dependent on animal pollination (fruits, vegetables, oilseeds) from those that do not depend on it (staple cereals).
A sustained decline in wild pollinators could reduce yields for the crops that depend on them most — without predicting a complete collapse, since managed beekeeping could offset part of the lost service.
ExtrapolatedDetail
Extrapolation à partir de Gallai et al. (2009) : les auteurs chiffrent une vulnérabilité économique à la dépendance, pas une projection de déclin futur.
The extent to which managed beekeeping colonies can substitute for wild pollinators varies widely by crop and region — some crops and wild plants depend on specific pollinator species that a domestic hive cannot replace.
What's missing to confirm it: How much managed beekeeping can actually substitute for wild pollinators in the crops and wild plants that depend on them most remains debated.
Documentation
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Density of wild honey bee, Apis mellifera, colonies worldwide (Visick et al. 2023, Ecology and Evolution)
Accessed August 10, 2026
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IUCN — Wild Apis mellifera classée En danger dans l'UE, Data Deficient au niveau paneuropéen
Accessed August 7, 2026
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Gallai et al. (2009) — Economic Valuation of the Vulnerability of World Agriculture Confronted with Pollinator Decline, Ecological Economics
Accessed August 7, 2026
Last verified: August 7, 2026