If we want to save our food, we must save the bees. For decades, the scientific community has been stressing the need to introduce initiatives to protect pollinating insects, whose decline has appeared increasingly alarming and unstoppable in recent decades. These animals play a crucial role in maintaining ecosystem balance, given that around four thousand varieties of fruit and vegetables could not exist without pollination. Consequently, it has been calculated that 75 per cent of the world's food production depends on them. We are talking about pumpkins, courgettes, apples, almonds, tomatoes, strawberries and cocoa, just to name a few examples. In other words, if bees were to disappear, the entire balance of the Earth would be overturned.

40 per cent of invertebrate pollinators face extinction

This is not, therefore, an "environmentalist" battle, but rather an objective that should be shared by all governments, in all countries and across all political alignments. On the occasion of World Bee Day, celebrated worldwide every 20 May, WWF published a report that captures the current situation.

FAO Eastern Africa @FAOEastAfrica

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Each year on 20 May, @FAO marks #WorldBeeDay to spotlight the vital role of bees and pollinators in sustaining people and the planet. Protecting them is key to securing food production, plant health, and ecosystem restoration.
More on the Day: bit.ly/44Pq1u9

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The findings contained in the document are extremely worrying: "Over 40 per cent of invertebrate pollinators face extinction globally, while in Europe, almost half of pollinating insects are in decline and a third are threatened with extinction," the report reads, eloquently titled "The future in a bee's flight: why saving pollinators means saving ourselves." It points the finger at human activities responsible for this silent and dramatic environmental crisis, starting with unsustainable agricultural practices, the use of chemical pesticides and the impacts of climate change.

The enormous economic value of bees' work

An issue of "ecosystem services" and, consequently, also an economic one: "As the dossier reports, the economic value of pollination is far higher than that derived from the direct products of beekeeping (such as honey, pollen, propolis, etc.). Evaluating a single bee colony, production of over one thousand euros' worth of pollinated fruits and berries is estimated, compared to the 240 euros obtained from hive products." To this is added the value we derive from bees' service, "almost inestimable, of people's health and wellbeing."

WWF cites in this regard a study published in the scientific journal Environmental Health Perspectives, according to which the drastic reduction in pollination is already contributing to around 500,000 premature deaths per year, due to the decrease in fruit, vegetables and nuts in the diet, which can increase the incidence of chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular conditions.

Possible solutions to protect bees

For this reason, "a decisive change of course is essential, which must first and foremost be defined by our institutions: banning the most harmful chemical substances, increasing agricultural land dedicated to nature conservation, supporting organic farming and promoting agroecology," emphasises Eva Alessi, Head of Sustainability at WWF Italia.

wwfitalia @WWFitalia

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Oggi è la #giornatamondialedelleapi
In Europa quasi la metà degli insetti impollinatori è in declino e un terzo è minacciato di estinzione
Il report #WWF #api
wwf.it/pandanews/anim…

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The report in turn proposes a series of possible solutions: from more conscious consumer choices to reducing pesticide use in private gardens, from supporting local beekeeping to backing organic farming.

Yet some are even rolling back protections for pollinators

Many governments, however, have shown they are unwilling to act sufficiently. And even those that had taken some small steps forward seem to want to reverse course. In France, for example, work is under way to rehabilitate acetamiprid, a neonicotinoid pesticide that had been banned in 2020 precisely because of the risks its use poses to pollinating insects. On 14 May, the Economic Affairs committee of the National Assembly approved a measure intended to weaken (and in some cases repeal) numerous environmental protection measures applying to the agricultural sector. And if anyone were to object that it is only an economic committee speaking, it is worth remembering that just days earlier the Sustainable Development committee had also issued a similar opinion.

In addition to acetamiprid, the derogation also covers two other related molecules (which share the same neurotoxic mode of action): sulfoxaflor and flupyradifurone. According to the scope envisaged by the deputies, numerous types of production could be permitted to resume using these pesticides that are dangerous to bees, including sugar beet (400,000 hectares cultivated in France), hazelnuts (eight thousand hectares) and kiwi fruit (three thousand hectares). All in the name of the need to "support the agricultural sector." As though there were no other solutions: from agroecology to public subsidies (because if 800 billion euros can be conjured up at the snap of a finger to increase military spending, perhaps there is also room to help struggling farmers).