World Bee Day

  Bees are part of the biodiversity on which we all depend for our survival. They provide high-quality food—honey, royal jelly and pollen — and other products such as beeswax, propolis and honey bee venom. As the landmark 2019 report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) notes, “Sacred passages about bees in all the worlds’ major religions highlight their significance to human societies over millennia.” Beekeeping also provides an important source of income for many rural livelihoods. According to IPBES, the western honey bee is the most widespread managed pollinator globally, and more than 80 million hives produce an estimated 1.6 million tonnes of honey annually. And pollinators contribute directly to food security. According to bee experts at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, a third of the world’s food production depends on bees . When animals and insects pick up the pollen of flowe...

Pollinators strongly influence ecological relationships , ecosystem conservation and stability , genetic variation in the plant community , floral diversity , specialization and evolution. Bees play an important, but little recognized role in most terrestrial ecosystems where there is green vegetation cover for at least 3 to 4 months each year. In tropical forests, savannah woodlands, mangrove, and in temperate deciduous forests, many species of plants and animals would not survive if bees were missing. This is because the production of seeds, nuts, berries and fruits are highly dependent on insect pollination, and among the pollinating insects, bees are the major pollinators . In rainforests, especially in high mountain forests where it is too cold for most bees , other pollinators like bats and birds play a greater role in plant pollination . In farmed areas, bees are needed for the pollination of many cultivated crops, and for maintaining biodiversity in ‘islands’ of non-cultiv...

 Pollination is the transfer of pollen from the anther (the male part of the flower) to the stigma (the female part of the flower). Some plants can pollinate themselves: in this case, the pollen passes from the anther to the stigma inside the same flower, and this is called self-pollination . Other plants need pollen to be transferred between different flowers or different individuals of the plant. This is cross-pollination. Many plants can be pollinated both ways. Plants can be pollinated by wind or animals. Some plants have only one method for pollination , others use a combination. The knowledge ofpollination by animal pollination (Zoophily) in the tropics is still little known, and much work and research have to be done in this area. Some general rules can be used to detect whether a plant is pollinated by bees, flies, beetles, wasps, butterflies, moths, thrips, birds, bats, marsupials, slugs or rodents. Flowers pollinated by bees most often bloom in daytime, they can have d...

  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 .