Abstract
Pollinators represent an important production factor of ¾ of major food crops and thus are very important to food security. These species are also essential ecological agents for natural ecosystems which provide a number of ecosystem services to societies. Pollinators are facing severe declines worldwide. Human practices such and CC are the main drivers of pollinator decline. This decline affects both farmers and consumers worldwide. Yet, farmers and consumers in dry LIC and MIC are more vulnerable to this decline. In these countries, farmers are increasingly using pollinator dependent crops because they provide a better income per surface and water units and consumers are already exposed to nutritional insufficiencies which can only be deepened by pollinator decline. Additionally, both farmers and consumers in LIC and MIC use ecosystem services derived from insect pollination as an additional source of income. The decline of pollinator will have heavier impacts on farmers' and consumers' welfare in LIC and MIC. Worldwide, efforts for the protection of insect pollination are still insufficient. The protection of these species from human practices should be based on changes in the human behavior. These changes can also mitigate the impact of CC on pollinators. Over the last decade, many high income countries have engaged in national and regional strategies for the protection of pollinators. Yet, in many cases, interventions within these strategies were deemed inefficient because they fail to account for individuals' preferences which can be a good determinant of behavioral change. In dry LIC and MIC, efforts for the protection of pollinators are almost inexistent. Governments in these countries still need to acknowledge insect pollination as a threatened ecosystem service which highly contributes to farmers' and consumers' economic welfare. The economic assessment of the contribution of insect pollination to the well-being of farmers and consumers can serve as an additional argument to support the protection of pollinators in these countries. The design of efficient strategies for these countries requires the analysis of preferences of both farmers and consumers for the benefits of insect pollination. We conduct a double DCE to: analyze farmers and consumers' preferences for the benefits of insect pollination, assess values they derive from these species and use the DCE results to inform policy recommendations for the protection of insect pollinators in dry LIC and MIC. To achieve these objectives, we chose Morocco as our benchmark site. Morocco is a dry MIC where pollinators are threatened severely by both agricultural intensification and CC. Another important aim of this PhD thesis is to study the impact of aridity on farmers and consumers' economic preferences; aridity can be an important factor influencing economic preferences in dry LIC and MIC. Therefore, the survey took place in 5 bioclimatic regions in Morocco with a total of 492 farmers and 481 consumers. We find that both farmers and consumers highly value the benefits they derive from insect pollination. We demonstrate that aridity has a strong effect on farmers' and consumers' preferences for the benefits of insect pollination. Farmers' and consumers' WTP is positively related to the aridity level; farmers' and consumers' highest WTP for the protection of the benefits of insect pollination was stated by people living in the region where the level of aridity is highest. We anticipate an increase in the value that farmers and consumers attribute to the benefits of pollinators as a result of an increase in aridity levels. We show that some classes of farmers and consumers are more likely than others to engage in pro-pollinator behaviors, which highlights the importance of the use of targeted interventions to achieve behavioral changes. We can therefore build on these results to make policy recommendations for the protection of pollination.