00:00Is honeybeekeeping doing more harm than good?
00:03One-third of pollinator species, such as bees, butterflies, bats and hummingbirds,
00:09are in decline in many parts of the world.
00:11In Europe, one out of ten bee and butterfly species is threatened with extinction.
00:21Without pollination, there is no plant reproduction.
00:24Many plant species would decline and eventually disappear.
00:28Almonds, apples, coffee and strawberries are some of the foods that depend on the essential pollination work carried out by bees.
00:37What is really happening is that we are losing the rare and dangerous species,
00:42and we are reducing the populations of many bees.
00:46And for this, we don't need to speculate.
00:48We already know that in agricultural areas, very intensive with large monocultures,
00:54they lose most of their wild-peed populations and the crop yields have declined consequently.
01:03So, for humans, a first clear impact is that the crop production will decrease.
01:11There are 20,000 different species of bees, species of flies, butterflies, moths, wasps, beetles, drapes, birds, bats and other vertebrates.
01:21However, humans can only domesticate or manage honeybees, which isn't always the most effective species,
01:28either in how much they can pollinate or the range of plants they serve.
01:32As wild bee and butterfly populations shrink, the number of honey bee hives in the European Union has been steadily growing.
01:40The EU is the world's second largest honey producer after China.
01:45The drivers of pollinator decline are well known.
01:49Land use changes, intensive farming, pesticide use, pollution, invasive species, infectious diseases and climate change.
01:58But now, some scientists say honey beekeeping could be making things worse.
02:03So, in the agricultural areas we were working on in Spain, which were orange groves,
02:08and beekeepers put hives close to these groves to get honey.
02:13But then what happens with oranges is that they flower all at the same time and they flower for a short period of time,
02:21something like a week or something like that.
02:23And then when all those orange flowers disappear, those bees, they were moving into the surrounding areas in search for extra food.
02:33So, could large honey bee hives be depriving wild bees of the food they need to survive?
02:39They have very large colonies of tens of thousands of individuals and are extremely good at finding flower resources and foraging for those resources.
02:48So, when there is abundance of honey bees in the neighborhood, you have some serious competition.
02:54Those wild bees are really under serious competition.
02:57For that reason, for many ecologists, honey beekeeping is not protecting biodiversity.
03:03In some cases, it may even be harmful, especially where there are fewer flowers like urban spaces.
03:10I've even seen some campaigns trying to increase the amount of honey bee hives, like commercial honey bee hives, to rescue pollinators.
03:19And for me, that would be equivalent to say, like, we need more chicken farms to save the bird biodiversity.
03:25So, what's the solution to saving wild bees?
03:28If I can plant a wildflower patch in my garden, if you can do the same, bit by bit, it just exponentiates and extrapolates.
03:38And it's just one step that you can do.
03:41The solutions may sound simple, but putting them into practice is not always straightforward.
03:46Many of these steps are already encouraged by the EU Pollinators Initiative, but adoption remains a challenge.
03:53Researchers agree. The most important step is raising awareness and educating the public.
04:00Planting native flowers, the ones that local bees have evolved with, can make a big difference.
04:05Think borage, comfrey, lavender and dandelions.
04:09And rather than keeping lawns perfectly trimmed, let them grow a little wild.
04:14Avoid pesticide use whenever possible.
04:17Because bees don't just help us grow food, they serve as bio-indicators of ecosystem health.
04:22So, if wild bees are driving in your garden, you're helping biodiversity drive too.
Kommentare