The Sad Decline of Bees Worldwide When I grew up in Ireland in the 1970s and 1980s honeybees, and all bees, were much more common. We always had bees nesting in the roof of our house. I would marvel every September when the drone bees were thrown out of the nest in the roof. The drones would be crawling all over the ground and I would play with them. There were bees in a number of trees on our farm and I remember as a boy throwing stones at the entrance to the nest in the tree and running away. As a boy that was always fun!
We would frequently see bees swarming during the summer and the loud buzzing and excitement of a swarm was common. As a child I would stand in the middle of the swarming bees and marvel. Bees were a definite part of our summers in County Laois and we were not even beekeepers at that time. I later got into bees but as a young child I remember bees and the frenetic hum of bees on warm summer days being just a part of the natural order of things.
Sadly that has all changed in a few short years. I was away from Ireland living in Kenya between 1993 and 2008 and the beekeeping world had changed drastically by the time I had returned. I remember when I came back to live in Ireland looking at flowers such as clover during the summer and not seeing any bees. That filled me with sadness. There are very few wild colonies of honeybees left – most having been wiped out by varroa mites. Varroa mites were discovered in Ireland in 1998. To see a swarm of bees now is rare enough. Do our children get to experience the beauty of bees anymore? Apart from varroa and associated diseases we also have constant ongoing intensification of our agriculture which may have resulted in increased yields of agricultural products but has not been bee or pollinator friendly. We once had meadows which were a wonderful mix of flowering plants providing forage for bees. Meadows have been ploughed up now and replaced with hybrid grass seeds such as perennial ryegrass. You look at a field now and there is nothing for bees to forage on. I have heard this described as 'green concrete' or also as a 'green desert'. Another problem is that hedges are being removed to make way for larger fields.
Ireland:
According to the National Biodiversity Data Centre one third of Ireland's 101 bee species are now under threat of extinction. Two species of bees have already become extinct. This is in a country which is proud of it's natural landscape and it's green food image. A national pollinator plan aims to tackle the problem.
United Kingdom (UK)
In the UK there are around 250 species of bees. Just like in Ireland, sadly bees are under threat. Since 1900, they have lost around 20 species of bee in the UK alone - and a further 35 are at risk. There has been a drastic loss of 97% of UK wildflower meadows since the second world war.
North America:
A recent report by the Center for Biological Diversity (Kopec et al., 2017) showed that more than 700 North American bee species are headed toward extinction. This is very sad and very worrying. In 2016 seven species of yellow faced bees, native to Hawaii, were put on the endangered list. In 2017 the rusty patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis) was listed as an endangered species, becoming the first wild bee in the continental United States to gain such federal protection.
Worldwide
Pollinator decline is a global trend. A recent major global assessment suggested that about 40% of invertebrate pollinator species (such as bees and butterflies) are facing extinction (see IPBES, 2016). That statistic is truly shocking considering the importance of bees in pollinating our food crops.
What can we do?
I believe that one way we can tackle the problem and create more awareness on the plight of our bee populations around the world is by having more beekeepers in the world. From my research work with the African Beekeeping Resource Centre (ABRC) I have learned that beekeepers are great environmentalists and at the forefront of conservation (you can download the ABRC research report for free here). Therefore the more beekeepers we have in the world then the more people who will be aware of the sad plight of bees and be willing to speak and advocate for the conservation of bees. This is not just about bees, by helping to conserve bees we are also helping to protect the future of humanity.
Let us all work together to make more people aware of the wonderful benefits of bees and beekeeping. Together we can be a strong and united voice for our wonderful bees before it is too late and many more species become extinct.
Tom Carroll, PhD
October 2017
References
IPBES (2016): Summary for policymakers of the assessment report of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services on pollinators, pollination and food production. S.G. Potts, V. L. Imperatriz-Fonseca, H. T. Ngo, J. C. Biesmeijer, T. D. Breeze, L. V. Dicks, L. A. Garibaldi, R. Hill, J. Settele, A. J. Vanbergen, M. A. Aizen, S. A. Cunningham, C. Eardley, B. M. Freitas, N. Gallai, P. G. Kevan, A. Kovács-Hostyánszki, P. K. Kwapong, J. Li, X. Li, D. J. Martins, G. Nates-Parra, J. S. Pettis, R. Rader, and B. F. Viana (eds.). Secretariat of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, Bonn, Germany. 36 pages.
Kelsey Kopec & Lori Ann Burd (2017) 'POLLINATORS in Peril, A systematic status review of North American and Hawaiian native bees' Center for Biological Diversity
The All Ireland Pollinator Plan
http://www.biodiversityireland.ie/projects/irish-pollinator-initiative/all-ireland-pollinator-plan/
Photo: Credit to Luca Biada (CC BY 2.0) | 
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