The "Bee Movie" was right about one thing: pollen – and pollen-bearing creatures such as bees, butterflies and insects – are critical for humans as they are responsible for three-quarters of the world's plant-based food in addition to fruits, vegetables and coffee. So, May 20, celebrated as "World Bee Day" since 2017 on the birthday of Anton Jansa – a Slovenian known as the pioneer of modern beekeeping – marks a special day to acknowledge these underappreciated hard workers of the world.

Working hard for Earth

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) mentions the great contributions of bees to humans, plants and the environment, noting that they have been among the hardest-working creatures on the planet for centuries.

While bees travel from flower to flower to obtain their food, they also mediate pollination in plants. In fact, bees, which provide the majority of the pollen exchange on Earth, play one of the most critical roles in the continuity of the ecosystem.

Almost 90% of flowering plants are pollinated by insects, birds and mammals. Insects make up the largest portion of what are termed pollinators – creatures that move pollen from the male anther of a flower to the female stigma of a flower. Among those insects, bees are some of the most significant.

In addition to fruits, vegetables and coffee, three-quarters of the world's plant-based foods are obtained thanks to pollinators such as bees, butterflies and other insects.

Carrying pollen from one flower to another, bees and other pollinators produce not only abundant fruit, nuts and seeds, but also greater variety and better quality production, which contributes to food security and nutrition.

For example, honeybees do 56% of the pollination for apricots – 28 kilograms (61.7 pounds) of fruit from an apricot tree that bears 50 kilograms of fruit is obtained thanks to the pollination of bees. In other words, if there were no honeybees in nature, the amount of fruit that can be taken from an apricot tree would fall to 22 kilograms.

During the pollination process, the nectar and pollen provided by the plant are collected by honeybees and used as a source of nutrition and colony development.

Billions in worth

A statement from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) points out that the majority of crops grown in the European Union depend on insect pollination. Beyond the essential value of pollination to conserve biodiversity, the global annual value of pollination is estimated at hundreds of billions of dollars.

Emphasizing the need to monitor and maintain healthy bee stocks not only locally or nationally but globally, the EFSA emphasizes the need to monitor and maintain healthy bee stocks, given the ecological and economic value of bees.

Especially in the last 10 to 15 years, particularly in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, England, Netherlands, Italy and in Western European countries such as Spain, the bee numbers have been unusually declining, according to the EFSAA.

Bee careful

It is stated that the decrease in the number of bees is not due to a single reason, but several factors are at play. It is noted that environmental changes such as intensive agriculture and pesticide use, attacks by viruses, pathogens and invasive species, and habitat loss have affected the decrease in the bee population.

Among the things that can be done to protect bees are to reduce the use of pesticides in homes and gardens, prevent unplanned urbanization, protect natural areas, reduce pesticides in agriculture and expand organic agriculture more, take strategic measures against climate change on the level of countries, organize programs to establish nature awareness in new generations and create more incentives for beekeeping activities.

Remember Jurassic Park

Bees, which enable plants to reproduce by carrying precious pollen from bloom to bloom as they collect nectar, have existed all over the world for millions of years, except at the poles.

According to a study conducted in Myanmar in 2020, fossils of bees and pollen were found in 100-million-year-old amber remains. The discovery made in a mine in Myanmar's Hukawng Valley is said to be the first example of the honeybee, which became fossilized 100 million years ago by getting stuck in tree resin.

The detection of pollen residue in the amber also indicates that the bee collected pollen from flowers just before it died.