DISES: Do landscapes shape the emergence of institutions governing the pollinator commons?

This research addresses the spatial dynamics and feedbacks within the pollinator-human socio-environmental system. The overall aim is to gain a better understanding of how and where collective action might emerge to manage novel resource commons. Insect pollinator declines and pollination scarcity is impacting food production and ecosystem integrity worldwide. For smallholder farmers of pollinator-dependent crops, the decline in pollination services from wild insects can threaten already precarious livelihoods. This problem of pollinator decline has been posed as a ‘tragedy of the commons’, and many have highlighted the need for cooperative institutions to address it, as current top-down pollinator conservation efforts have not been effective. Yet despite the urgent need, there is little evidence of collective action institutions governing wild insect pollinators. While much is known about how landscapes influence pollinator supply, the spatial arrangements of land uses/covers within landscapes, that might enable or hinder the emergence of collective action institutions is not well understood. In this project, we explore the potential for collective action institutions to emerge within pollinator-dependent smallholder apple farming communities in Uttarakhand, India and New York, USA. By providing a better understanding of the spatial factors that underpin pollinator supply and the abilities of cooperative governance arrangements to support pollination services, this project improves our understanding of the complexities of the pollination crisis.This project has two primary objectives: to advance existing theories of institutional formation by examining how spatial variation in social and environmental drivers of collective action vary within and across landscapes; and to support the development of a more climate-resilient socio-environmental system that supports farmers and pollinators in the fruit belts of the Western Himalayas and Central New York. These regions differ biophysically and in terms of the existing institutions, but they also both have many small-holder apple farmers surrounded by rapid land use and climate changes. A structured comparison between these two sites allows us to ask: 1.) How does landscape context and configuration interact with on-farm practices to shape pollinator supply? 2.) How do social, institutional, and environmental landscapes influence farmers’ interest and ability to engage in collective action? Importantly, this work will help discern the spatial scale at which collective action might be feasible and beneficial for pollinator communities and the agricultural systems they serve. The work fills an important knowledge gap regarding how and when natural resource governance institutions can emerge under different spatial, social, and environmental conditions and expands existing theory on the governance of socio-environmental systems by considering institutional development in situations where resource boundaries are unclear and ecosystem services operate at scales not governed by existing institutions. The findings from this project can advance theory about socio-environmental systems dynamics, particularly with regards to the emergence of institutions for new and novel common pool resources.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.