World Bee Day

  Pollinators, such as bees, birds, butterflies, and bats, play a vital role in the health of plants, animals, people and the environment. This World Bee Day , here are five reasons pollinators are vital contributors to One Health. They help feed the world Pollinators contribute to 35 percent of the world’s total crop production, supporting 87 of the 115 leading food crops, including fruits, vegetables, seeds, and nuts. These crops are critical for diverse diets and livelihoods. Without adequate pollination, yields decline, food becomes scarcer and more expensive – placing food security and the livelihoods of farmers and communities at risk. They support human health through better nutrition. Pollinators ensure the availability of many nutrient-dense foods - like berries, seeds, nuts, and vegetables - that are crucial for balanced diets and disease prevention. Without them, the supply of these foods could decline, leading to poorer diets and negative health outcomes. Pollination al...

 If we look at the many colourful and different looking flowers, we should not forget that they have developed as an adaptation for the bees and other pollinators, and not to please humans! Bees and most flowering plants have developed a complex interdependence during millions of years. An estimated 80 percent of flowering plants are entomophilous i.e. depending more or less on insect pollination to be able to reproduce, and it is estimated that half of the pollinators of tropical plants are bees. The efficiency of honeybees is due to their great numbers, their physique and their behaviour of foraging on only one plant species at one time. The bees have to find their food in flowers. The food can be nectar or pollen. Nectar is produced to attract the bees. Pollen is also attracting the bees, but it has another function too: it is produced to ensure the next generation of plants. Bee pollinated flowers have evolved in such a way that a visiting bee has to brush against the flower’s ...

  Some species of plants and bees have developed a close interdependence in connection withpollination . Such a mutual adaptation and interdependence between a plant and pollinator is a result of a long and intimate co-evolutionary relationship. The pollinating bees of the Brazil nut tree Bertholletia excelsa is an illustrative example of such a relationship and its economic importance. The Brazil nut tree grows wild in the Amazon Forest. Brazil nuts are one of the economically most important wild products growing trees in the area, with more than 50 000 tonnes of the nuts exported from Brazil every year. The Brazil nut trees cannot be grown in plantations, because they need to be pollinated by one special bee species, the small shining Euglossa bee. This bee is dependent on the presence of an orchid species that is found only in the rain forest . They are also the only pollinators for a number of orchids in the forest. In some species of Euglossa, the male bee collects some sce...

  Bees and trees belong together. The honeybees and stingless bees have originally developed in forest biotopes. Given the choice, wild honeybees chose nesting places in trees rather than in an open landscape. Most often the honeybees prefer to build their combs or nests high in trees instead of close to the ground, but bees nests can be found everywhere in a tree. In savannah areas with bushfires in the dry season, a high nesting place is an advantage. When beekeeping is present in a forest, the beekeepers will be interested in protection of the forests and especially the tall trees preferred by the bees . When enough bees are present in a forest, they provide a better pollination that leads to improved regeneration of trees and conservation of the forest’s biodiversity .

  Without bees there would be no flowering plants, and without flowering plants there would be no bees. Without bees biodiversity would not be so great. Biodiversity is measured as the number of different plant and animal species found in a certain unit area. Biodiversity is highest in tropical forest areas and lowest in the Arctic. High biodiversity is related to the high age of the ecosystem, and a stable environment. A stable environment creates the possibility of development of specialization and use of narrow ecological niches . The explanation of the high biodiversity in tropical forests can be as the species’ efforts to avoid attack by diseases and pests. Both can be much more serious in a tropical forest biome with a constant supply of water, and a hot and stable temperature. The high diversity with its high specialization in pollination relationships can also be a danger for the forest. The specialist pollinator must have access to food all year round. Many of the small...

While pollinators are not mentioned explicitly in the text of the SustainableDevelopment Goals (SDGs), their sustainable management contributes directly to the achievements of SDGs 1, 2 and 15. SDG 1: No poverty . Many rural communities, particularly in developing regions, rely on pollination-dependent crops for their income. Pollinators enhance agricultural productivity, which boosts the economic resilience of smallholder farmers. Pollinators can also play an important role in alleviating poverty through their role in diversification of income streams through beekeeping and the provision of high value crops. SDG 2: Zero hunger . Pollinators play a key role in the production of cultivated and wild food plants which are crucial for combating hunger and malnutrition. Therefore, a thriving pollinators population is critically important for the efforts to ensure food security and nutrition for all. SDG 15: Life on land .  Pollinators are necessary for maintaining biodiversity, as t...