Exploring connections between pollinator health and human health

Abstract

Despite recent advances in understanding the role of biodiversity in ecosystem-service provision, the links between ecosystem-service providers and human health remain more uncertain. During the past decade, an increasing number of studies have argued for the positive impacts of healthy pollinator communities on human health. Here, we begin with a systematic review of these impacts, finding only two studies that concomitantly quantified aspects of pollinator health and human health. Next, we identify relevant research relating to four pathways linking pollinator health and human health: nutrition, medicine provisioning, mental health, and environmental quality. These benefits are mediated by healthy pollinator communities through improved pollination of nutritious crops and an estimated ~28,000 animal-pollinated medicinal plants; the provisioning of pollinator-derived medicinal products such as honey; the maintenance of green spaces and biocultural landscapes which improve mental health and cleaner air, water, and food resulting from pollinator-centred initiatives to reduce agrochemical use. We suggest that pollinator diversity could be a proxy for the benefits that landscapes provide to human health.