World Bee Day

In News

• To raise awareness of the importance of pollinators, the threats they face and their contribution to sustainable development, the UN designated 20 May as World Bee Day.
• The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) celebrated World Bee Day under the theme ‘Bee Engaged: Celebrating the diversity of bees and beekeeping systems’.

About Bees

• Bees are winged insects known for their role in pollination and producing honey.
  • They are entirely dependent on flowers for food, which consists of pollen and nectar, the latter sometimes modified and stored as honey.
• There is no doubt that bees and the flowers, as they pollinate, evolved simultaneously.
• Significance:
  • As bees go from flower to flower gathering pollen, a small amount is rubbed from their bodies and deposited on the flowers they visit. 
  • This loss of pollen is significant, for it often results in the cross-pollination of plants. 
  • Together with wild pollinators, bees play a major role in-
    • maintaining biodiversity 
    • supporting forest regeneration
    • promoting sustainability 
    • adaptation to climate change 
    • improving the quantity and quality of agricultural production.
  • Commercially bees are valued for honey and wax production.

• Threats to the Bees:
  • Bees and other pollinators, such as butterflies, bats and hummingbirds, are increasingly under threat from human activities.
  • If the current trend continues, nutritious crops, such as fruits, nuts and many vegetable crops will be substituted increasingly by staple crops like rice, corn and potatoes.
    • This will result in an imbalanced diet.
  • Intensive farming practices, land-use change, mono-cropping, pesticides and higher temperatures associated with climate change all pose problems for bee populations.

International initiatives 

• In 2000, the International Pollinator Initiative (IPI) was established at the Fifth Conference of Parties (COP V) as a cross-cutting initiative to promote the sustainable use of pollinators in agriculture and related ecosystems. 
  • Its main goals are monitoring pollinators’ decline, addressing the lack of taxonomic information on pollinators, assessing the economic value of pollination and the economic impact of the decline of pollination services and protecting pollinator diversity.
• The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) also provides technical assistance to countries on issues ranging from queen breeding to artificial insemination to sustainable solutions for honey production and export marketing.

Indian initiatives

• National Bee Board (NBB):
  • It is a registered society under the Societies Registration Act of 1860.
  • It was reconstituted/restructured by the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
  • NBB is one of the National Level Agencies (NLAs) under Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH).
  • NBB has also been designated as a Nodal Agency for the promotion of scientific beekeeping in the country.  
• Honey Mission:
  • It was launched in August 2017 in line with Prime Minister’s call for ‘Sweet Revolution’ in 2016 while introducing the Banas Honey project at Deesa in Gujarat’s Banaskantha district.
  • Beekeepers are provided with practical training about the examination of honeybee colonies, acquaintance with apicultural equipments, identification and management of bee enemies and diseases, honey extraction and wax purification, and management of bee colonies in spring, summer, monsoon, autumn and winter seasons.

Way Forward

As suggested by United Nations 

• For beekeepers, or farmers by:
  • Reducing, or changing the usage of pesticides;
  • diversifying crops as much as possible, and/or planting attractive crops around the field;
  • creating hedgerows.

• For governments and decision-makers:
  • Strengthening the participation of local communities in decision-making, in particular that of indigenous people, who know and respect ecosystems and biodiversity;
  • Enforcing strategic measures, including monetary incentives to help change;
  • Increasing collaboration between national and international organizations, organizations and academic and research networks to monitor and evaluate pollination services.

Source: UN