Last Monday, members of nearly 100 national governments met in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur for a weeklong conference to discuss the threats facing animal pollinators such as bees, butterflies, and birds. According to delegates of the conference, these pollinators are increasingly threatened with extinction, a bleak reality that could have devastating consequences for human food supply in the near future.The meeting was held at the behest of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), an independent working group comprised of 124 UN member nations. It marks the first time world leaders have convened on this scale to discuss the threat to the bees, birds, bats, beetles, butterflies, and other animals which transport the pollen necessary for the reproduction of over 75 percent of the world’s leading food crops and 90 percent of wild flowering plant species.

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