Samenvatting

This thesis is a part of BEESPOKE, an international initiative to reverse the decline of wild pollinators and create more resilient agroecosystems by providing expertise, tools and financial knowledge to land managers and policy makers. The severe decline of pollinators and other beneficial insects is a major concern in agricultural systems, leading to economic losses of billions of dollars annually. The leading factor of this decline is the deterioration of the landscape, resulting from intensification of agricultural processes. Small landscape elements used to fulfil important functions in agricultural pastures for both farmer and nature, leading to heterogenetic landscapes where beneficial insect populations were able to sustain themselves. Today, landscape elements are often removed as a result of costly maintenance or loss of productive agricultural surface. Development of policyframeworks and management solutions that recreate heterogeneity by the implementation of landscape elements in agroecosystems might reinstate the ecosystem services of pollination and natural pest control. This thesis brings insight in the relationships between the target crops of BEESPOKE [squash, rape seed, potato, field beans and wheat], insects that are beneficial for their pollination or natural pest control and the landscape elements they need to survive in and around the crop in an extensive literature review.