Interactions between pollinators and agricultural production are complex to understand and lack of knowledge is, therefore, a challenge for legislation and management. Knowledge tends to be partial and specific to particular systems. Thus, there is a critical need for structural knowledge that can generate an integrated and coherent picture of what is known, and what is not known. This, however, is a complex challenge that involves application of conceptual models to disclose knowledge structures and chains of cause and effects. Here we describe the principle of such a conceptual model for supporting legislation and management to secure the livelihood of bees.