1,330 species of plants that are cultivated or harvested from the wild in the tropics, but the pollinators of only 775 are known. About 88 percent of them are pollinated mainly by insects, 5 percent by bats, 1 percent by birds, and 6 percent by the wind. These figures agree with Kamaljit Bawa's earlier estimate that animals pollinate about 98 percent of all wild flowering plants in the lowland tropical rainforests of the world, and that the vast majority of these animals are insects. Bawa's estimate is particularly significant because tropical rainforests harbor so many different kinds of plants and animals. Edward O. Wilson wrote that tropical rainforests cover only 6 percent of the planet's land surface but are home to more than half the species of organisms on earth.

1,330 species of plants that are cultivated or harvested from the wild in the tropics, but the pollinators of only 775 are known. About 88 percent of them are pollinated mainly by insects, 5 percent by bats, 1 percent by birds, and 6 percent by the wind. These figures agree with Kamaljit Bawa's earlier estimate that animals pollinate about 98 percent of all wild flowering plants in the lowland tropical rainforests of the world, and that the vast majority of these animals are insects. Bawa's estimate is particularly significant because tropical rainforests harbor so many different kinds of plants and animals. Edward O. Wilson wrote that tropical rainforests cover only 6 percent of the planet's land surface but are home to more than half the species of organisms on earth.