World Bee Day 2022: History, Significance & Main Threats to Bees

Bees have worked tirelessly for centuries to benefit humans, plants, and the environment. Bees are among the most hardworking creatures on the planet, and their contribution to the ecosystem is critical. They transport pollen from one flower to the next, ensuring not only a plentiful supply of nuts, fruits, and seeds but also a wider variety, contributing to food security and nutrition.

Historical Background of World Bee Day 2022:

On May 20, the world celebrates World Bee Day. Anton Jansa, the father of beekeeping, was born on this day in 1734. In December 2017, the United Nations Member States approved Slovenia's proposal to declare May 20 as World Bee Day.

Significance of Bee Day:

• The main purpose of this World Bee Day is to acknowledge the role of bees and other pollinators for the ecosystem. 

• It will highlight the importance of traditional knowledge related to beekeeping, the use of bee-derived products and services, and their importance in achieving the SDGs.

• This day is an opportunity to raise awareness of the importance of pollinators, the threats they face, and their critical role in sustainable development. It is also an opportunity to show how each individual can help to support, restore, and enhance pollinator roles.

Threats to our Pollinators:

• As per reports, pollinators affect approx 35 percent of the world's crop production, increasing outputs of 87 of the leading food crops globally, plus many plant-derived medicines. But everything is at stake right now due to sudden decrease in the numbers of bees.

• Pollinators, like bees, butterflies, bats and hummingbirds, are increasingly under threat from human activities. The main threats faced by our pollinators are habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation. As native species of plants are replaced by manicured lawns, crops and non-native gardens, pollinators lose the food supply and nesting sites that are crucial for their survival.

• Another reason of this decline is the improper and unconscious use of pesticides. Pesticides such as insecticides and weed killers, which are manufactured to destroy, prevent, repel or reduce pests such as insects, mice and other animals, weeds, fungi, bacteria and viruses. Nowadays pesticides are aggressively used in nearly every home, business, farm, school, hospital and park and are found almost everywhere in our environment. This is a matter of concern for all of us.

• Other factors like intensive farming practices, land-use change, mono-cropping and higher temperatures associated with climate change all cause problems for bee populations.

• Pollination is considered as a fundamental process for the survival of our entire ecosystems. Approximately 90% of the world’s wild flowering plant species depend, entirely, or at least in part, on animal pollination, along with more than 75% of the world’s food crops and 35% of global agricultural land. Therefore, pollinators not only contribute directly to the food security, but they are also the key player in the biodiversity conservation.

Bees, as we all know, are in danger. According to reports, due to human impacts, current species extinction rates are 100 to 1,000 times higher than normal. If current trends continue, our nutritious crops, such as fruits, nuts, and a variety of other vegetable crops, will increasingly be replaced by staple crops such as rice, corn,, and potatoes, threatening our balanced diet system. Because we all rely on pollinators, it's critical to keep track of their decline and prevent biodiversity loss.

Now is the time to reconsider our relationship with Nature and Pollinators, as well as the steps we can take to help this tiny species and the millions of people who rely on them.