Beekeepers as vanguards

After reviewing 1,500 research studies, the European Food Safety Authority has concluded i that neonicotinoid pesticides present a high risk to honey bees, bumblebees and solitary bees. Does this news surprise anyone? Apparently we must always wait until much evidence is amassed before steps are taken to ban insecticides causing havoc to our ecology – it is already accepted that neonicotinoids are highly toxic to aquatic life ii .

As a society we are slow to gather and accept scientific evidence to prove what any amateur naturalist has long observed: that there is a catastrophic decline in insect numbers.

Last October a Report iii from Germany told us that the biomass of flying insects in nature reserves had dropped by 75% since 1989. Undoubtedly the habitat for insects on German nature reserves will be far better than it is for insects elsewhere. What is happening worldwide? Long-term scientific studies like this are rare, yet anyone of middle-age with modest awareness of local ecology knows from experience that insect numbers are far lower than they used to be.

Flowers exist to attract insects to pollinate them. The pollination of flowers creates seeds and fruit, that together with insects, provide the basis for thousands of food chains. The disappearance of insects leads to the disappearance of species all along these food chains. Here in UK we are a nation of bird-watchers and thus we have good data for some bird species - we know that farmland bird numbers have more than halved since 1970, and some insect feeding bird species have declined by 95%. Many littlestudied species will be declining too, out of sight to research. There are more than a million insect species on earth, yet apart perhaps from bees and butterflies – most are barely noticed, and most often regarded as pests.

Beekeepers have exceptional awareness of the work of bees in crop pollination. In addition to harvesting honey and beeswax, another vital role for beekeepers is to raise awareness of the need to recover insect populations.

Beekeepers must become vanguards calling for reduced use of insecticides and increased awareness of the need for flowering plants – for our bees and for all the other insects that need them too.

Dr Nicola Bradbear Director, Bees for Development

i www.efsa.europa.eu/en/press/news/180228

ii Morrissey CA, Mineau P, Devries JH, Sanchez-Bayo F, & Liess M, 2014 iii Hallmann CA, Sorg M, Jongejans E, Siepel H, Hofland N, Schwan H, et al. (2017) More than 75 percent decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas. PLoS ONE 12(10): e0185809. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal. pone.0185809