Celebrate World Bee Day
To raise awareness of the importance of pollinators, the threats they face and their contribution to sustainable development, the United Nations (UN) designated today, 20 May, as World Bee Day.
Why are bees important?
Bees, along with other pollinators, such as butterflies, bats and hummingbirds, play a fundamental role in our ecosystems. Nearly 90% of our world’s wild flowering plant species depend in some way on animal pollination for their survival. More than 75% of the world’s food crops, and 35% of global agricultural land, also depend on these wild species.
As well as being one of the major pollinators, bees ensure our everyday foods and therefore our food security, along with playing a major role in sustainable agriculture and biodiversity. They also significantly contribute to the mitigation of climate change and environmental conservation.
In the longer-term, protecting our bees and our beekeeping sector can help reduce poverty and hunger, along with keeping our environment healthy. More recently, scientific studies have proved that bees have become increasingly endangered. We all depend on pollinators and it is, therefore, crucial to monitor their decline and halt the loss of biodiversity. So, it is only through joint efforts that we can ensure the protection of bees and their habitats.
Why are bees endangered?
It has been found that current species extinction rates of bees are 100 to 1,000 times higher than normal due to human impacts. Close to 35% of invertebrate pollinators, and in particular bees and butterflies, along with about 17% of vertebrate pollinators, such as bats, face extinction globally.
If this trend continues, our nutritious foods, such as fruits, nuts and many vegetable crops, will be substituted increasingly by staple crops like rice, corn and potatoes, eventually resulting in an imbalanced and unhealthy diet. Intensive farming practices, land-use change, mono-cropping, pesticides and higher temperatures associated with climate change all threaten bee populations and, in turn, the quality of food we grow.
How you can join in and celebrate World Bee Day
World Bee Day aims to raise awareness and to strengthen measures aimed at protecting bees and other pollinators. Check out – www.worldbeeday.org – which has been created to highlight the importance of bees and beekeeping, with lots of information on bees, as well as the major beekeeping events taking place around the world today to celebrate World Bee Day.
This fourth observance of World Bee Day will be celebrated – in the midst of a still ongoing worldwide pandemic – with a virtual event organised by the FAO, today, under the theme – ‘Bee engaged – Build Back Better for Bees’. You can join in today at 13:00 (CEST) and follow the conversations on social media using the hashtags #WorldBeeDay #Savethebees!
“The event will call for global cooperation and solidarity to counter the threats posed by the COVID-19 pandemic to food security and agricultural livelihoods alongside prioritizing environmental regeneration and pollinator protection. It will be an occasion to raise awareness of how everyone can make a difference to support, restore and enhance the role of pollinators.”
Everyone can contribute to the preservation of our bees
- Plant nectar-bearing flowers for decorative purposes on balconies, terraces, and gardens
- Buy honey and other hive products from your local beekeepers
- Raise awareness among children and adolescents on the importance of bees and express your support for beekeepers
- Preserve wild areas – which feature a more diverse array of flowers – and sow nectar-bearing plants
- Cut grass only after the nectar-bearing plants have finished blooming
- Use pesticides that do not harm bees, and spray them in windless weather, either early in the morning or late at night, when bees withdraw from blossoms