World Bee Day

For thousands of years people have kept and used bees to harvest honey. However, beekeeping goes far beyond the production of honey. Bees and other pollinators play a vital role in increasing agricultural yields, contributing to biodiversity and other ecosystem services. They also provide a tangible support to the livelihoods of rural communities and indigenous peoples, which leads to a steadier food security framework. Since beekeeping can be done with locally available material and limited resources, it also offers decent working opportunities and income generation to people in extreme poverty, including women, young people, and even disabled citizens. In recognition of this, the Government of Slovenia and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) organize an International forum for action on sustainable beekeeping and pollination. This biennial event brings together governments, experts, business and civil society to give a regular fresh impetus to the intern...

  As far as beekeepers are concerned, throughout the 20th century the other man’s grass was always greener – bees in other countries were viewed as more prolific, gentler, more disease resistant, less prone to swarming, more yellow, blacker. Indeed many beekeepers still think this way, and this has led 1 Bradbear, 2005. Bees and their role in forest livelihoods to the disasters of recent years, when races of bees, or diseases and parasites of honeybees have been spread around the world with serious consequences for the beekeeping industries , and indigenous populations of bees, in many countries. This has been caused entirely by the movement of honeybee colonies by man. For example, the mite Varroa destructor is a ‘natural’ parasite of Asian honeybees that survive in the presence of the mite . However, when particular races of the mite are introduced to European Apis mellifera honeybees (the bee used for beekeeping in most industrialized countries), the whole colony will be ki...

 In general, deliberate efforts to protect pollinators ultimately foster the conservation of other components of biodiversity , which enhances ecosystem services like pest control, soil fertility and air and water regulation. Adopting a holistic approach that ensures the long-term co-existence of agricultural practices for the production of food, fibre and fuel on one hand and the protection of natural ecosystems on the other is needed for  sustainable agrifood systems .

  Globalisation is taking place in beekeeping , as in every other sector. Beekeeping with European races of honeybees , plus all associated technology, is being spread around the world. The consequences of competition between introduced (exotic) honeybees and indigenous honeybee species and races are unknown.

  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...