Bees. The United Nations declared 20th May World Bee Day; you may wonder why this is. Well, whenever one thinks of bees, the next thought in mind is honey. However, many more goodies come with this little magic maker, a part of the biodiversity on which we all depend for our survival, honey; royal jelly and pollen, beeswax, propolis, and honey bee venom are examples of products associated with bees.
The keeping and maintenance of bees for commercial reasons is called apiculture. According to bee experts at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a third of the world’s food production depends on bees. Despite its immense benefits, beekeeping has not been fully harnessed in Kenya, a nation priding itself as the environment capital of the world, a farming nation.
From providing sweet honey to saving essential members of the environment, beekeeping has something that appeals to everyone, whether it’s a career, a hobby, or a mix of the two. Beekeeping is sustainable and environmentally friendly, requiring little capital to start up. Honey bees are incredibly effective pollinators as they will always pollinate the whole flower, which produces perfect fruit. In China, where they have eradicated the native honey bee population due to excessive use of pesticides and loss of habitat, farms are forced to employ workers to hand pollinate the crops. A hugely inferior and costly method compared to insect pollination.
According to the landmark 2019 report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the Western Honey Bee is the most widely managed pollinator globally, and more than 80 million hives produce an estimated 1.6 million tons of honey annually, an important source of income for many rural livelihoods. Individuals or groups can initiate beekeeping and the market potential for honey and wax is high. Additionally, it can be produced from an area of little agricultural value. To establish the hives, an apiary must be located in a well-drained open area, with a profuse source of nectar, pollen, and water.
Moreover, beekeeping practices offer valuable benefits to mental health acting as a form of therapy for the mind. The careful attention and observance required to manage a hive are mindful activities and serve to take one’s mind off everyday stresses, helping relieve anxiety and depression symptoms.
Sadly, bee populations have been declining globally over recent decades due to habitat loss, intensive farming practices, changes in weather patterns, and the excessive use of agrochemicals such as pesticides, posing a threat to a variety of plants crucial to human well-being and livelihoods. The United Nations Environment Programme’s preliminary research shows that air pollutants interact with scent molecules released by plants which bees need to locate food. The mixed signals interfere with the bees’ ability to forage efficiently, making them slower and less effective at pollination.
“Increasing crop and regional farm diversity as well as targeted habitat conservation, management or restoration, is one way of combating climate change and promoting biodiversity,” says UN Environment Programme (UNEP) biodiversity specialist Marieta Sakalian. Even more, world leaders at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP 15) in Kunming, China finalized the post-2020 biodiversity framework, which calls for among other things, the reduction of pesticides by at least two-thirds by 2030.
Farmers can take actions to help preserve bees and other pollinators, such as planting nectar-bearing flowers such as sunflowers, preserving old meadows that feature a more diverse array of flowers and sowing nectar-bearing plants, and using pesticides that do not harm bees, spraying them in windless weather, either early in the morning or late at night, when vees withdraw from blossoms.
Individually, we can also promote the beekeeping sector by, buying honey and other hive products from your nearest local beekeeper, setting up a pollinator farm on your balcony, terrace, or garden, and raising awareness among children and adolescents on the importance of bees and expressing support for beekeepers.
