The Economic Value of the Ecosystem Services of Beekeeping in the Czech Republic

Abstract

Beekeeping is an important part of the bioeconomy. Throughout its existence, it has been one of the fields of human endeavour that contributes to sustainability. It has significant benefits for society, both economically and environmentally. Most (90%) of honeybees’ benefit to humankind lies in their pollination capacity, and only 10% lies in bee products (honey, propolis, wax, etc.). The research presented was carried out in the conditions of the Czech Republic in the first half of 2020 through a questionnaire survey within a Google Form, which was aimed at beekeepers. The aim of this paper is, based on a questionnaire survey, to evaluate ecosystem services of beekeeping from the perspective of beekeepers, including the valuation of selected types of ecosystem services. The results show that in the Czech Republic, the most common reason for beekeeping is as a hobby (34.18%). As expected, the demand for pollination is very low compared to other countries (11.6%). From the point of view of the benefits of ecosystem services, the questionnaire survey showed that the most important benefit is the pollination of cultivated and other plants (54.7%) and honeybee products (24.8%). The value of all selected ecosystem services totals 3,646,368 CZK. The results show that state support is needed, which should address the negative demographic development of beekeepers and thus ensure the production of ecosystem services.

Ecosystem Services and Linkages of Naturally Managed Monotheca buxifolia (Falc.) A. DC. Forests with Local Communities across Contiguous Mountainous Ranges in Pakistan

“…Field visits and online surveys (via Microsoft’s platform) were performed to obtain information from mountain inhabitants on the perception and use of ecosystem services from Monotheca phytocoenoses [ 34 ]. An open-ended and semistructured questionnaire was designed, which anyone could fill in anonymously, with no need to register [ 35 ].…”

A Model for the Economic Evaluation of Cultural Ecosystem Services: The Recreational Hunting Function in the Agroforestry Territories of Tuscany (Italy)

“…Nevertheless, thanks to the cooperation of the local hunting associations who supported the less-experienced in the compilation of the online questionnaire, it was possible to achieve a very good degree of responsiveness and important benefits from the online survey, such as cost-effectiveness and speed of data collection [69]. Despite this problem, the use of the online survey is well established in the literature for estimating the value of ESs, and in particular, of CESs [13,54,70]. So, this study, despite some distortions linked to the prevalent sampling of more technologically advanced subjects, has led to good, albeit conditional, results.…”

Modeling the Potential Global Distribution of Honeybee Pest, Galleria mellonella under Changing Climate

“…Increased pollinator density and diversity have a direct impact on agricultural productivity and can assist smallholder farmers to raise their output by a global average of 24%. It has a major impact on biodiversity and has favorable social effects [ 12 ]. Many negative factors currently affect global beekeeping, posing a threat to its long-term viability.…”