UN Warning: Collapse of Bee Colonies Now Global

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Part 1 –

This month, scientists working for the United Nations have expressed alarm at the massive decline in bee colonies that they claim is now a global phenomenon.

In a bulletin issued by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) entitled “Global Bee Colony Disorders and other Threats to Insect Pollinators”, scientists — including some of the world’s leading honey-bee experts — warn there are severe declines in pollinators needed to produce enough food for the global population.

Increasing bee colony declines in Europe and the US that have occurred in the past decade are now being observed in China, Japan and Africa. New and deadly fungal pathogens have been detected globally that transmigrate from region to region via international trade.

Of the 100 crop species that provide 90 per cent of the world’s food, over 70 are pollinated by bees. The UNEP bulletin notes that honey bees remain the most economically valuable pollinators for crop monocultures worldwide. Yields of certain fruit, seed and nut crops decrease by more than 90% without these highly efficient pollinators.

The UN report claims an estimated 20,000 flowering plant species, upon which many bee species depend for food, could be lost over the coming decades unless conservation efforts are escalated.

Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director, said: “The way humanity manages or mismanages its nature-based assets, including pollinators, will in part define our collective future in the 21st century. The fact is that of the 100 crop species that provide 90 per cent of the world’s food, over 70 are pollinated by bees”.

While scientists and beekeepers speculate that this large-scale and mysterious loss of honey bee colonies may be the result of everything from impaired protein production, genetically modified food, pests, viruses, fungi, and weather, agricultural pesticides are the most likely the primary culprit.

The bulletin highlights increasing use of chemicals in agriculture, including “systemic insecticides” and those used to coat seeds, as responsible for being toxic to bees. In combination these become even more potent to pollinators, a phenomenon known as the “cocktail effect”.

Dr Neumann, one of the researchers said: “The transformation of the countryside and rural areas in the past half century or so has triggered a decline in wild-living bees and other pollinators. Society is increasingly investing in ‘industrial-scale’ hives and managed colonies to make up the shortfall and going so far as to truck bees around to farms and fields in order to maintain our food supplies.

“This report underlines that a variety of factors are making these man-made colonies increasingly vulnerable to decline and collapse. We need to get smarter about how we manage these hives, but perhaps more importantly, we need to better manage the landscape beyond, in order to cost-effectively recover wild bee populations to far healthier and more sustainable levels,” he added.

Highlights From UN Report

The report claims that declines in bee colonies date back to the mid 1960s in Europe, but have accelerated since 1998, while in North America, losses of colonies since 2004 have left the continent with fewer managed pollinators than at any time in the past 50 years.

The UN report adds that Chinese beekeepers now face several inexplicable and complex symptoms of colony losses in both species, forcing some Chinese farmers to pollinate fruit trees by hand because of the lack of insects.

In Japan, 25 percent of the beekeepers have experienced sudden losses of their bee colonies, and in Africa, beekeepers report signs of “colony collapse disorder”.

Multiple Factors Listed From Report

Habitat degradation, including the loss of flowering plant species that provide food for bees, is among the key factors behind the decline of wild-living pollinators.

Parasites and Pests, such as the well known Varroa mite which feeds on bee fluids, are also a factor.

Air pollution may be interfering with the ability of bees to find flowering plants and thus food.

Scents that could travel over 800 metres in the 1800s now reach less than 200 metres from a plant.

Electromagnetic fields from sources such as power lines might also be changing bee behaviour. Bees are sensitive as they have small abdominal crystals that contain lead.

Herbicides and pesticides may be reducing the availability of wild flowers and plants needed for food and for the larval stages of some pollinators.

Part 2

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