Women's Institute Launch SOS for honeybees
15/11/2009

http://www.thewi.org.uk/

Why is the WI campaigning on honey bee health?

The decline of honey bees represents a major loss in biodiversity, as honey bees are not only responsible for producing honey, but play a vital role in pollinating plants for food and other crops.

Approximately a third of our human diet is directly dependent on bees, making them central to our existence. In the natural environment, bees are also responsible for pollinating around 90% of the wild plants which produce seeds and fruits on which birds and wild animals depend, thus making them even more central to our world's existence.

Currently, honey bees are coming under threat from pests and diseases for which treatments are not fully understood or are ineffective. Many bee keepers have experienced the complete destruction of their hives from such diseases, whilst the UK is losing its bee population at around 30% a year (up from just 6% in 2003). The UK has 250 species of bees, three of which have already become nationally extinct.

We urgently need to discover what is happening to our honeybee colonies and what we can do to reverse their decline and have a thriving, buzzing countryside once again.

Background to the issue

In 2009, the Government has attempted to address some of the concerns around bee health by implementing Bee Base, a database of all bee keepers in the UK, and providing the National Bee Unit with more funding for its inspections and advice work. The focus on inspections and beekeeping practices may go some way to helping the decline in bees, however the resolution seeks support for research into bee health specifically.

In April 2009, the Government and its funding partners announced a £10 million fund over 5 years for research into the threat facing all pollinators. While honey bees will benefit, this money does not give them the prominence they deserve in terms of their importance to our food supplies and the ecosystem. The BBKA had previously called for £8 million just for bee research. Sharing this limited funding simply means that much important work may remain unfunded. It is vital that these funds are committed to the work that can make a real difference and meet the challenges facing honey bees.

Professor Francis Ratnieks, Britain's only Professor of Apiculture gave the new Pollinators Initiative no more than a cautious welcome. He said: "There are over 2,000 species of moths and butterflies and 250 species of bee in Britain. So if this becomes a project aimed at funding 2,000 species of insects, I rather fear the honeybee - which is a single species and the most important pollinator - may get a little left out."

The £10 million for all pollinators has been promised but not yet delivered and there is as yet no indication of how much of this money will go to bees and to other pollinators and of what kind of research it will lead to. MPs are still pressing the Government on this issue by holding a parliamentary debate on it a week after the new money was announced.

There is a need for more research on honey bee health and well being, including: diseases, disease resistance, management of hives, and availability of food for honey bees (flowers). The UK does not have a properly integrated programme of research to address this from a British angle, although there are many institutions with a full programme of research proposals awaiting funding at present.

Diseases and lack of flowers for food are probably the biggest issues for investigation. In relation to diseases the issues are to determine the causes behind recent collapses in the bee population, and appropriate methods of controlling these risks, including treatments and management against specific disease-causing organisms (e.g., Varroa mites) and disease resistance in bees. There are also calls for more research into a healthier breed of bee, which actively seeks to maintain a clean and healthy hive and may stave off the development of viruses

In addition, for the long term survival and health of the honey bee, it is important to know what impact our farming methods have on this valuable species. Much of the proposed research put forward by UK institutions includes work to understand where the honeybee likes to forage and whether our system of planting monoculture crops has an impact on the health of the species as a whole. There are also calls for research into the impact of pesticides and other chemicals used routinely in farming on the honey bee, as there are concerns that honey bees may be poisoned or harmed in some way by these chemicals.

Take action now

There are a number of ways in which you can immediately get involved in the campaign: 

1.    Raise awareness:

• Hold a meeting with your WI and/or local community about the threat facing the honey bees
  and what can be done to help. Invite a local member of the BBKA to speak about the issue.
• Take part in our Bee aware action day in the Autumn. We are asking members to gather together with foods which are dependent on honey bee pollination for their survival, to demonstrate what we stand to lose if honey bees die out. Please contact the Public Affairs department for more details and look out for updates in WI Life.

Facebook

MySpace

Digg It

Del.icio.us

Reddit

StubmleUpon

Newsvine