World Bee Day Celebrated
Each year across the globe, World Bee Day is celebrated to highlight the importance of pollinators in our ecosystem.
While many of us probably only think of bees, birds and butterflies as pollinators, there are other insects and even certain mammals, playing a crucial role in flower, plant, and food production.
However, bees face the most stressors such as disease, pesticides, parasites and now, climate change as well and the ramifications are extreme. Long droughts and floods negatively impact the foraging of bees with a subsequent loss of honey and fertilisation as normal. Wildfires are destroying their habitats and without bees, we are at risk of having no wildlife, no greenery and no food. And for every alternative the human race finds, it has negative effects.
That big lorry you pass on the highway may be transporting bees to farms, unfortunately to the detriment of these highly evolved pollinators, which lately spend an unusual amount of time on the highways.
While most of our food production, (by weight), consists of a few species of wind-pollinated grains, more than 80% of crop species, including almost all fruits and vegetables, require some kind of pollinator. Transporting honey bees (Apis mellifera) to provide propagation for agriculture is big business and not only in South Africa, but globally, commercial pollination services maintain thousands or even tens of thousands of hives available for rent and delivered by trucks all over the country.
Growers have a narrow window to provide intensive pollination as fields need to be propagated during bloom. Most crops only bloom during a brief, seasonal period, some as short as a few weeks and requires intensive pollination during this time to be profitable. Commercial pollinators (bee suppliers) can pollinate crops all over the country by taking advantage of variations during growing seasons. Hives may be moved multiple times and several thousand kilometres per year. While pollination services increase annually, it is of utmost importance to also understand the stress experienced by honey bees during transportation.
Various mellitologists (bee scientists) from the South African National Biodiversity Institute, Kirstenbosch Research Centre, Cape Town (SANBI), the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Cape Town, as well as the Centre for Invasion Biology, School of Agricultural, Earth and Environmental Science at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Pietermaritzburg, had published a study on Pollination ecosystem services in South African agricultural systems.
In developed countries, the practice of transporting hives is monitored by state and federal agencies, releasing annual reports regarding the health, winter survival and inventory of the nation’s honey bees. While some research focuses on transporting hives, very little work has been done specifically investigating the effects of road transport’s effect on colony stress and survival.
A colony may see the sun rise in one province or state and set in another. In the intervening time, bees are confined in their hives, loaded onto trucks and transported long distances at highway speeds, sometimes through mountain passes. Hives are kept in bee yards until booked for agricultural pollination.
A scientific paper, published by American scientists in Environmental Entomology, investigated transportation stress during transit affecting honey bee survival and pollination ability. The study found that colonies experienced cold stress during shipping, with smaller colonies being especially vulnerable.
Without bees, many of the fruits, vegetables and other key crops humans rely on would be lost, causing global food insecurity. Bees pollinate approximately $15 billion worth of crops around the United States and produce honey, valued as a $3.2 million industry, in 2017.
What You Can Do
If you like to garden, find plants suitable to your area, based on climate conditions and local pollinators. You can email your political representatives about stopping harmful chemicals or support your local farmers by buying raw honey, leaving a bowl of rocks with a layer of water out, or even sponsoring a beehive.
This year’s EARTHDAY.ORG was celebrated on 20 May, challenging the public to become involved and take action to preserve our ecosystem. It is of the utmost urgency that we as human consumers create a symbiotic relationship with pollinators and show our appreciation on more than just one day every year.
