Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística

Description

Pollination, defined as the transference of pollen between the male and female parts of flowers, enabling the formation of fruits and seeds that will give rise to new plants, is a key ecosystem service for the maintenance of biodiversity and for the sustainability of the production of food. It can be either abiotic, mediated by not living agents, like water, wind and gravity, for instance. or biotic, i.e., carried out by insects, birds and bats, among other animals, being the latter the form of reproduction from which plants with flowers and crops predominantly depend.

This publication introduces an unprecedented study, within the IBGE, on the direct contribution of animal pollination for the agricultural and extractive productions, having as reference the Municipal Agricultural Production (PAM) and Forestry Activities (PEVS) surveys carried out by the IBGE. From the PAM´s time series, from 1975 to 2023, variables harvested area, quantity produced and value of production of permanent and temporary crops investigated by the survey were obtained; from PEVS, in the period between 1981 and 2023, variables quantity produced and value of production of extractivism were captured. Based on these statistics, the products were classified according to their respective dependency rate on animal pollination, based on the scientific literature, summarizing such information in the indicator of contribution of pollinators to the value of production for the period between 1996 and 2023, according to different geographies.

This study is of experimental nature and its statistics are under assessment as they still did not hit a complete degree of maturity in terms of harmonization, coverage or methodology. Nevertheless, it is expected that these analyses might provide valuable inputs for efforts of preserving beings responsible by animal pollination and, consequently, for the sustainability of the Brazilian agricultural and extractive productions.

The publication includes technical notes with methodological considerations on the study, as well as a glossary with concepts considered essential to understand this subject. The volume is also available on the IBGE portal through Sidra, which releases the values of this indicator for Brazil, Major Regions, Federation Units and Municipalities, disaggregated by permanent, temporary and extractive crops. Exclusively for the year 2023, the indicator is also provided for Biomes, taking into account the list presented in the publication Biome prevailing by municipality for statistical purposes, released by the IBGE.