Small but Mighty: Why Bees Are Essential to Our Future
90% of the world’s wild flowering plants, 75% of global food crops and 35% of agricultural land depend entirely or in part on animal pollinators, and crops that rely on pollinators are 5X more valuable than those that don’t. Despite their value to local and global economies and food systems, pollinators are under threat. Close to 35% of invertebrate pollinators face extinction globally, particularly bees and butterflies. Due to human impact, extinction rates among bees are 100 to 1000 times higher than normal.
World Bee is celebrated annually on May 20th to raise awareness about the importance of bees and strengthen measures aimed at protecting bees and other pollinators. Boosting the global bee population and protecting existing colonies would help resolve critical issues in the global food system and contribute to efforts to eliminate hunger in developing countries. Bees are primary pollinators, with one beehive pollinating all fruit trees, flowers, and crops within a 5-kilometer radius.
May 20th was chosen to celebrate bees as the birthday of Anton Jansa, a pioneer of modern agriculture from Slovenia who revolutionized the practice of modern beekeeping. Jansa developed a new beehive design to create a form that could be stacked together and defined the role of drones and queens. His books on apiculture from the 18th century are still used to this day. Jansa recognised the overlooked contribution bees make to ecosystems: “Here are none so hard working and useful to man with so little attention needed for its keep as the bee."
Small but Mighty: The Role of Bees
Not only does protecting pollinators help protect food systems, but it also enhances biodiversity and critical ecosystem services such as soil fertility, pest control, and air and water quality. Bees nourish everyone, and their role in strengthening landscapes around us shouldn’t be overlooked.
The importance of bees was recognised under the Convention on Biological Diversity, which makes the conservation and sustainable use of pollinators a priority. In 2000 the International Pollinator Initiative was established at COP V to promote the sustainable use of pollinators in agriculture and related initiatives.
Human-Driven Threats to Bees
The critical threats to bee populations are driven by human intervention. Habitat loss, intensive farming practices, and climate change have altered the environments bees live in and put stress on their natural patterns of pollination and migration.
Rising temperatures, erratic rainfall patterns, and increased droughts have disrupted the natural flowering cycles of plants. Bees have evolved to depend on specific plants at certain times of the year, and are struggling to adapt to the changes. A study in Kenya found farmers lost an average of 36% of their honeybee colonies between October 2021 and September 2022 due to climate change effects.
The prioritization of monoculture farming has also made it harder for bees to sustain themselves, eliminating the diversity of plants bees need for survival and providing limited foraging opportunities.
The extensive use of pesticides and insecticides in modern agriculture has also damaged bee populations. Between 2016 and 2019 Kenya imported 12.9 million kilograms of insecticides, used to control pests including aphids, whiteflies, and locusts. The incidence of insecticides in the environment is so high that Kenyan honey has been reported to contain residues of toxic chemicals.
Neonicotinoids, a class of pesticides used widely in Kenya, are especially harmful to bees. The chemicals interfere with bees’ nervous systems, impairing their ability to forage, navigate, and communicate with other bees. In many areas, the overuse of these pesticides has led to a sharp decline in bee populations.
Intervening to Protect Bees: The Haller Foundation
Protecting bees will start with a reassessment of agricultural practices. The Haller Foundation provides in-person training sessions and learning resources through the Haller Farmers App to support smallholder farmers in implementing regenerative practices. The Haller Farmers App contains a dedicated section on bees and beekeeping, including different hive types and best practices around installation and maintenance.
Beyond setting up a hive, Haller also works to help farmers implement techniques such as intercropping and agroforestry, which help sustain pollinators. Reducing reliance on chemical pesticides and insecticides, the team has worked with smallholder farmers to develop non-toxic solutions that protect crop yields without causing environmental damage.
Beehives not only provide an additional source of income through the sale of honey and beeswax, studies have also demonstrated their utility to smallholders in de-escalating the sometimes violent interactions between farmers and elephants.
To support our work with smallholders in Kenya and beyond, donate here.
