Oxford University Press recently commissioned me to write a piece for their Expert Essentials series, which is designed to give legal professionals an overview of complex topics that increasingly affect their clients, their sectors, and the regulatory landscape in which they operate. My contribution, on pollinator decline, has now been published. That might seem an unusual topic for lawyers at first glance. Pollinators are usually framed as part of a conservation story: bees, butterflies, hoverflies, birds, bats and other animals that help flowering plants to reproduce. But as I argue in the article, pollinator decline is no longer just an ecological issue. It is becoming a legal, financial, and governance issue too.
Why should the legal profession care? Because pollinators sit right at the intersection of biodiversity loss, food security, business risk, and emerging regulation. Many of the crops that underpin global supply chains depend on animal pollination, especially fruits, nuts, oilseeds, coffee, and cocoa. If pollination services become less reliable, then yields can fall, costs can rise, and supply chains can become more fragile. That matters not only to farmers and food companies, but also to the lawyers advising businesses on disclosure, due diligence, liability, investment risk, and long-term resilience. As the article explains, pollinator decline has moved from being a “silent natural problem” to a boardroom issue with concrete legal hooks.
This shift is being driven in part by the rapid development of biodiversity-related reporting frameworks and regulatory expectations. Companies are increasingly expected to understand both how they depend upon nature and how they affect it. Pollinators are a particularly good example of this “double materiality”. A business may depend on pollinators for the crops and raw materials it sources, while also contributing to pollinator decline through land-use change, pesticide use, pollution, or habitat destruction. Under emerging sustainability and disclosure frameworks, that is no longer something that can be waved away as somebody else’s problem.
The legal implications are broad. They include advice on compliance with biodiversity reporting rules, contracts and due diligence across supply chains, litigation and liability relating to environmental harm, and the interpretation of new standards around nature-related risk. My article discusses frameworks such as the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and associated standards, and the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures. Together, these are helping to pull biodiversity, including pollinators, out of the margins of environmental discussion and into mainstream conversations about governance, accountability, and fiduciary responsibility.
What makes this especially important for legal professionals and others is that pollinator decline is not caused by one simple factor. It is driven by a web of interacting pressures: habitat loss, agricultural intensification, pesticides, diseases, invasive species, pollution, and climate change. That complexity makes it difficult to regulate neatly, but also impossible to ignore. For lawyers, this is precisely the kind of scientifically complex, economically significant, and legally fast-moving issue that is becoming more common in the age of ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) reporting, biodiversity disclosure, and nature-related financial risk.
In other words, this is not about turning lawyers into ecologists. It is about ensuring that legal professionals understand enough of the science to advise clients intelligently in a world where biodiversity loss is becoming embedded in regulation, reporting, corporate strategy, and litigation. Pollinators may be small, but the consequences of losing them are anything but.
Here’s the full reference with a link to the article:
Here’s the abstract:
This article aims to equip legal professionals with an understanding of pollinator decline, why this is important to business and finance, and the relevant emerging standards and regulatory frameworks. Pollinators – including insects, birds, reptiles, and mammals – are essential to the reproduction of most flowering plants and underpin global food production, biodiversity, and ecosystem functioning. Global evidence shows that many pollinator populations are declining, raising concerns that extend well beyond conservation into agriculture, business, and the economy. These declines are driven by multiple interacting pressures, including habitat loss, intensive land use, pesticide exposure, parasites and diseases, invasive species, pollution, and climate change. No single factor is responsible, and responses must therefore be systemic. Pollinators support the yields and quality of many food crops, particularly fruits, nuts, and seeds that are central to human nutrition, contributing hundreds of billions of dollars annually to global agricultural output. Yet pollinators are often overlooked in risk assessments, despite growing evidence that their decline can disrupt supply chains, increase production costs, and weaken ecosystem services. Monitoring data reveal mixed but troubling trends, though data gaps remain substantial, complicating assessment and response. Regardless of uncertainties, pollinator decline is increasingly relevant to law and governance. Emerging global and regional frameworks – including biodiversity targets, sustainability reporting standards, and nature-related disclosure initiatives – are bringing pollinators into corporate reporting, due diligence, and liability discussions. As a result, pollinators are no longer solely an ecological concern, but a material issue for businesses, investors, and legal professionals navigating sustainability, disclosure, and long-term risk.
Prof. Jeff Ollerton - ecological scientist and author 