The agriculture sector is crucial for economic development of the developing countries. Furthermore, agriculture depends on natural resources such as ecosystem services, for instance, the production of the world edible crops and nutrients depend on the pollination service up to 60% and 40% respectively; this dependence is observed mainly in the least developed countries (LDCs). However, pollinators decline is a global concern. Therefore, there is a need to develop materials that can help to identify impacts of pollinators on international trade and development in an open economies context, especially from a sustainability perspective. Our research proposes an extended agro-ecological standards approach to a country level, for the LDCs’ sustainable production of the crops and nutrients, access to international trade, and economic development.

This research aims to evaluate the contribution of pollination service in the economic development of the LDCs. More specifically, the main objectives are: – 1) To evaluate the impacts of pollinator decline on the international trade of crops and nutrition; 2) To highlight the LDCs opportunities to increase their share in the international markets within a global tendency of pollination service decline. 3) To simulate the impacts of the pollination service on the LDCs’ GDP. The 48 LDCs, based on UN classification, is the sample. Scenarios will be used to understand local and global impacts of different levels of pollinator extinction on international trade and thus on the LDCs’ development.

The expected results are that the progressive loss in pollinators’ density may induce continuous increases in global prices of pollinator dependent crops as well as increases in the quantity of crops exchanged in international market. In addition, the heterogeneity of loss and dependence of pollination service across countries might modify the comparative advantages for LDCs, a factor that might contribute to their economic development. The LDCs may adopt the green open economy approach toward their agriculture development to sustain and/or improve the quantity and quality of their food production, and their interests inside the international trade game.