Pollinators including bees, butterflies, hoverflies, and moths provide essential ecosystem services. Creating habitat improves welfare of individual insects and supports broader ecosystem health.
Pollinator welfare under uncertainty about insect sentience is best approached through the precautionary principle and ecosystem co-benefits. Even if individual insects lack subjective experience, their population health affects the millions of sentient animals that depend on insect-pollinated plants for food. Habitat loss, pesticide use, and climate change are the primary threats. Creation of wildflower habitat, reduction of pesticide use, and provision of nesting sites are evidence-based interventions that support pollinator populations at modest cost. The ecological benefits extend to all wildlife that depends on flowering plants.