Informing policy and practice on insect pollinator declines: Tensions between conservation and animal welfare

Abstract

Climate change, agricultural intensification, and other anthropogenic ecosystem challenges have caused declines in the diversity and abundance of insect pollinators. In response to these declines, entomologists have called for greater attention to insect pollinator conservation. Conservation primarily aims to protect groups of non-human animals—populations or species—with only secondary concern for the welfare of individual animals. While conservation and animal welfare goals are sometimes aligned, they often are not. And because animal welfare comes second, it tends to be sacrificed when in tension with conversation priorities. Consider, for example, lethal sampling to monitor many pollinator populations. Growing evidence suggests that the welfare of individual insect pollinators may be morally significant, particularly in the Hymenoptera and Diptera. Considering insect welfare in conservation practices and policies presents many challenges as, in the face of rapid, anthropogenic change, it may be impossible to avoid harming individual animals while promoting diverse populations. We suggest some practical, implementable strategies that can allow for more robust integration of animal welfare goals into insect pollinator conservation. By following these strategies, entomologists may be able to find policies and practices that promote the health of ecosystems and the individual animals within them.

I. The Era Beyond Eisemann et al. (1984): Insect pain in the 21st century

“…Birch's 'Animal Sentience Precautionary Principle' suggests that "Where there are threats of serious, negative animal welfare outcomes, lack of full scientific certainty as to the sentience of the animals in question shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent those outcomes" (2017, p. 3). There are many cost-effective measures that can prevent possible negative insect welfare outcomes, as described by Barrett et al, (2023); Crump et al, (2023); Drinkwater et al, (2019);Fischer et al, (2023); Lövei et al, (2023); and others. Importantly, these measures still allow for the use and management of insects in service of human interests -just as has been the case for vertebrates, which are still researched and killed for pest control, surveyed for museum collections, and subjected to pain, disease, and negative affective states directly for biomedical and foundational research.…”

The case for open research in entomology: Reducing harm, refining reproducibility and advancing insect science

“…There is an ethical imperative to reduce such harm and promote environmental stewardship across entomology (Costello et al, 2016; Fischer & Larson, 2019), in which open research can play an important role. Whilst new technologies and techniques are increasingly facilitating non‐invasive insect research (Bjerge et al, 2023; Chua et al, 2023), the insect collection methods involved in most entomological research may also harm individual insects' welfare (Barrett et al, 2023; Fischer & Larson, 2019). Whilst there is currently no scientific consensus on whether insects feel pain, a recent review of neurobiological and behavioural evidence suggests that adults of multiple insect taxa meet many of the criteria in the Birch et al (2021) framework for assessing animal sentience (Gibbons et al, 2022).…”

The case for open research in entomology: reducing harm, refining reproducibility and advancing insect science

“…Whilst new technologies and techniques are increasingly facilitating non-invasive insect research (Bjerge et al, 2023;Chua et al, 2023), the insect collection methods involved in most entomological research may also harm individual insects' welfare (Barrett et al, 2023;Fischer & Larson, 2019). Whilst there is currently no scientific consensus on whether insects feel pain, a recent review of neurobiological and behavioural evidence suggests that adults of multiple insect taxa meet many of the criteria in the Birch et al (2021) framework for assessing animal sentience (Gibbons et al, 2022).…”