According to the United Nations, May 20, 2021, will be the fourth annual World Bee Day. Bees, along with some birds, bats, and butterflies, are pollinators, which means that they key in the aid of flower reproduction.
What’s important, is these flowers produce more than 75% of food crops worldwide and about half of all edible oils, fibres, and raw materials.
The theme for this year’s World Bee Day is “Bee Engaged – Build Back Better for Bees.” To celebrate, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is hosting a digital conference that will “call for global cooperation and solidarity to counter the threats posed by the COVID-19 pandemic” to food security, agricultural livelihoods, environmental regrowth, and protection for pollinators. If interested, you can find the agenda for the conference here.
Why Are All Pollinators So Important?
According to one 2011 study, approximately 87.5% of all flowering plants rely upon pollinators in order to produce seeds and fruit, totalling about 308,000 different species. In 2009, the agricultural work of pollinators was valued at €153 billion.
Although hummingbirds and other insects can act as pollinators, bees are the best in the field. Pollen is an essential source of protein for bees, and some types of bees will spend most of their lives collecting it. As a bee lands in each flower, it gathers as much pollen as possible before flying to the next one. However, each time a bee lands in a new flower, some pollen from the previous flower will rub off onto the new flower, thereby fertilizing the plant and allowing it to produce fruit.
It is estimated that pollination from just honey bees alone in the United States is worth about USD 15 billion.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Pollinated plants have a greater genetic diversity, which prevents in-breeding and supports the species’ continued survival. According to the Canada Agriculture and Food Museum, plants that are visited by bees more frequently will produce larger and more uniform fruit. In the image below, the pear on the left is misshapen because the fruit’s tree was not sufficiently pollinated.
Canada Agriculture and Food Museum
These numbers are just the food-related benefits of pollinators, though. Healthy, well-pollinated plants are also used to create medicine, filter water, provide homes for wildlife, and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to mitigate climate change.
Major Threats to Bees
Right now, almost 35% of invertebrate pollinator species (such as bees and butterflies) and 17% of vertebrate pollinator species (such as bats and hummingbirds) face global extinction. Three common threats to these species include:
- Rising temperatures due to climate change
- The use of toxic pesticides
- Monocropping
Rising temperatures and unusual weather patterns are changing habitats and homes, making them uncomfortable and unusable for pollinators.
Pesticides are dangerous to pollinators because they either indiscriminately kill insects (including the ever-important bee) or they kill off the food supply for pollinators who eat insects (such as bats).
Monocropping is the practice of growing the same single crop on the same plot of land, year after year after year. Corn, soybeans, and wheat are the most common monocrops. Monocropping slowly drains the soil of essential nutrients, leaving the ground little more than dust, leading to soil erosion. Since monocrop fields grow only one species at a time, the entire field will grow and bloom at the same time. This spells trouble for pollinators because it means that they have access to food for only a short window during the entire year. Outside of the blooming period, pollinators are at risk of starvation.
Honeybees face an extra threat in the form of a disease called American Foulbrood (AFB) caused by the bacteria, Paenibacillus larvae. Mainly targeting young bee larvae, a single infected larva can produce over one billion disease-causing spores. AFB spores can be transmitted between colonies by robber bees looking to take advantage of a weakened hive or by beekeepers and their equipment who may unknowingly be carrying spores.
What You Can Do to Save Our Pollinators
If you want to help save pollinators around the world, consider planting an outdoor garden with flowers that bloom at different times of the year. This can give your local pollinators a source of food for most of the year. Always try to avoid using pesticides in your garden, though.
For those who don’t have a green thumb or don’t have the space for a garden, consider buying honey from a local apiary. Buying local honey helps to support beekeepers as they manage their protected colonies. Alternatively, consider sponsoring a hive. Some sponsorship organizations will let you buy a share in a hive managed by expert beekeepers. Other sponsor groups will place wild bees in new hives in ecosystems that are in desperate need of a new bee colony.
For more ideas on how you can help, join the United Nations’ virtual event on May 20 to celebrate World Bee Day!
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