Why should we care for bees and pollinators
“Bee Together for People & the Planet” is the theme of this year’s World Bee Day which we mark today. The United Nations has declared May 20 as the World Bee Day in 2017 on the initiative of Slovenia. The decision was widely supported by member states across the globe, including all permanent members of the Security Council. The purpose of the World Bee Day is to acknowledge the role of bees and other pollinators in the ecosystem.
Bees are, together with other pollinators, crucial for food security, sustainable agriculture, and biodiversity. They increase agriculture production and its diversity and contribute to medicine and development of different materials. Thus, they provide millions of people with jobs and contribute to their livelihood. Bees and other pollinators help mitigate climate change and maintain biodiversity. They serve as indicators of the state of local ecosystems, and signals for emergent environmental risks.
Bees and other pollinators need our care. Science already confirmed that they are suffering from negative effects of climate change, excessive use of pesticides, and biodiversity loss. Slovenia has, as one of the first countries in the European Union, prohibited the use of certain pesticides most harmful to bees.
There are close to 30,000 species of bees; the Philippines has its own native stingless bee, Tetragonula biroi. In wider Central Europe, the prevalent honey bee is Apis mellifera carnica or Carniolan bee, named actually after the province of nowadays Slovenia.
The engagement of Slovenian diplomacy has not ended with the adoption of the UN resolution. Through our diplomatic network, more than 300 pollinator projects in collaboration with partners have been launched around the world. In war-torn societies beekeeping has helped the rehabilitation process of the victims. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, it was introduced as a way of rehabilitation of land-mine victims. Similarly, in Ukraine beekeeping serves as a tool of empowering people with disabilities and in Iran it was used for empowerment of young Afghan women refugees and orphans.
In several countries, among them in India, North Macedonia, and United Arab Emirates, we emphasize beekeeping as a tool for women empowerment, and in some others, like in Finland, Denmark, Egypt, Moldova, Romania, and Ethiopia, we have engaged with children and youth for their pollinators action. In Greece, pollinator ecosystem preservation and awareness raising was the main theme. In Argentina, the focus was on development of eco beekeeping and apitourism, in South Korea the topic was bee-forest, and in China the construction of urban apiaries was promoted.
In the Philippines, we partner with the University of the Philippines Los Baños, and civil society organizations for a women-led stingless bee livelihood project in Labo, Camarines Norte, with the aim at establishing a sustainable source for additional household income.
This is also in line with the global efforts for closing the gender gap of rural women. The UN has declared 2026 the International Year of the Woman Farmer. The Food and Agriculture Organization, other international organizations, governments, and private sector will use this opportunity to highlight the vital role of women for food security and rural economies. With our modest bee project in Labo, we address some of the concerns rural women face, and narrow the still persisting gender gaps.
The Food and Agriculture Organization is the main partner of Slovenia in promoting the World Bee Day. The Third International Forum for Action on Sustainable Beekeeping and Pollination is taking place in Maribor, Slovenia this week, with the focus on linking science, agriculture, and biodiversity and scaling up crop production while protecting pollinators. The Philippines hosts the Asean Centre for Biodiversity that I still need to visit, but I was happy to learn that its executive director Dr. Jerome Montemayor is attending the above-mentioned world conference in Slovenia.
The day after tomorrow, on May 22, the global community will mark the International Day for Biodiversity with this year’s theme “Act locally for global impact.” There is a saying that when biodiversity has a problem, humanity has a problem. The messages of the World Bee Day and International Day for Biodiversity are similar and complementary.
The complexity of current global risks, underpinned by food insecurity and the triple planetary crisis of biodiversity loss, climate change, and pollution demand strong political and financial commitment, exploration of innovative approaches, and close collaboration between countries. As the ambassador of Slovenia to the Philippines, I feel privileged to work closely with partners here in addressing our shared concerns and jointly promote food security and biodiversity. Happy World Bee Day and happy International Day for Biodiversity! Let us “act locally for global impact” and “bee together for people & the planet”!
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Dr. Smiljana Knez is ambassador of Slovenia to the Philippines.
