Data from: Uncertainties in the value and opportunity costs of pollination services

Pollination is an ecosystem service that directly contributes to
agricultural production, and can therefore provide a strong incentive to
conserve natural habitats that support pollinator populations. However, we
have yet to provide consistent and convincing pollination service
valuations to effectively slow the conversion of natural habitats. We use
coffee in Kodagu, India, to illustrate the uncertainties involved in
estimating costs and benefits of pollination services. First, we fully
account for the benefits obtained by coffee agroforests that are
attributable to pollination from wild bees nesting in forest habitats.
Second, we compare these benefits to the opportunity cost of conserving
forest habitats and forgoing conversion to coffee production. Throughout,
we systematically quantify the uncertainties in our accounting exercise
and identify the parameters that contribute most to uncertainty in
pollination service valuation. We find the value of pollination services
provided by one hectare of forest to be 25% lower than the profits
obtained from converting that same surface to coffee production using
average values for all parameters. However, our results show this value is
not robust to moderate uncertainty in parameter values, particularly that
driven by variability in pollinator density. Synthesis and applications.
Our findings emphasise the need to develop robust estimates of both value
and opportunity costs of pollination services that take into account
landscape and management variables. Our analysis contributes to
strengthening pollination service arguments used to help stakeholders make
informed decisions on land‐use and conservation practices.