Bee extinction: Why we're saving the wrong bees

they're weird fuzzy and in a lot of trouble these insects are actually all bees wild ones and they're debatably more important than the honey making kind people are really worried about bees we will take the plight of the honey honeybee for granted at our own peril but what most people don't know honeybee numbers are increasing worldwide not just that but the way humans use honeybees makes them a problem putting a honeybee hive in your backyard doesn't help because we're saving the wrong bees animals are involved in the pollination of 90 of the world's flowering plants and when you think of pollinators the honeybee probably comes to mind that's because honeybees and humans have an ancient relationship bees have been managed for thousands of years there's a lot of evidence that has played an important role also in the ancient cultures in egypt and greece and so beekeeping has always been very widespread axel is the chair of the invertebrate conservation committee at the iucn honeybees are native to asia europe and africa but nowadays are everywhere except antarctica apis mellifera is the most common honeybee and the best studied although there are another 10 known species they're general pollinators meaning they will pollinate most plants and although honeybees are at risk from pests and disease the number of colonies worldwide is actually growing according to the fao managed hives have increased worldwide by 83 since 1961. because they are always managed by the beekeepers and also receive veterinary treatment and so on there's no no risk that they will become extinct but honeybees aren't the only bees the general public confounds bees with the honeybee this is isabel a pollination ecology researcher specializing in urban environments it would be the same situation if for example you were talking about birds and people think that when you talk about birds you talk about chicken there are around 20 000 different species of wild bees and they are the most important wild pollinators they're mostly solitary and unlike honeybees are suited to specific plants which makes them much better at pollinating a hectare of apples for example would require tens of thousands of honeybees to pollinate but only hundreds of this wild bee because osmia cornuta is particularly good at apple pollination each flowering plant is strongly connected to a pollinator that fits accordingly to the lock and key principle an entomologist by training sabrina is a project manager at the research institute of organic agriculture this perfect fit between flower and its selected pollinator is the product of a ongoing core evolution on for centuries that is still operating like the squash bees native to central and south america they're perfectly suited to squash plants they're early risers and squash flowers are only open early in the morning while the honeybees are still asleep don't like squash how about tomatoes potatoes or eggplant these crops also need wild pollinators loud ones like bumblebees to be precise their flowers require a vibrating buzz to release their pollen something a bumblebee perfectly provides honeybees just don't have that skill but wild bees are in serious decline and this doesn't only affect them and their ecosystems but our food security as well worldwide wild bee diversity has been decreasing each year since the 1990s pesticides intensive agriculture and especially habitat loss are main drivers a recent study found that we may have already lost a quarter of wild bee species but assessment is hard due to the lack of global data various regional estimates suggest over 40 percent of wild bee and butterfly species are threatened farmers are already noticing a difference when they walked along a field everything was full of pollinators and nowadays it's more like everything is calmed down and nobody knows where they are this loss of diversity can cause knock-on effects on whole ecosystems less pollinator diversity means fewer wild plants this can hurt animals that use them for food or shelter and it's also bad for the future of our food the yield of cultivated plants is higher when there are visited by variety of pollinators compared to when there are visited by only honeybees remember osmia cornuta the apple specialist most of the pollination of apple trees is performed by several species of wild bees so if you don't get this white beans you would get a crop of apples that would be reduced us crops are already producing less due to wild pollinator decline and globally we're planting more and more of the crops that require animal pollination like fruits vegetables and oil seeds the increase in honeybees hasn't kept up this means pollinator dependence has increased around 70 percent since 1961 and combined with the decline in wild pollinators means an emergency for the global food supply this is especially true in countries with many large monocultures that destroy wild pollinator habitats like china and the united states not only that the way we use honeybees actually makes them a part of the problem according to the american beekeeping federation two-thirds of the 2.7 million honeybee colonies in the u.s are used for pollination most go to the almond fields in california where 80 percent of the world's almonds come from then bees rotate around the country to pollinate other crops nowhere else in the world uses honey bees for pollination like the u.s but the trend is growing in europe too as wild pollinators disappear unfortunately it's not so good for the honeybees they can be exposed to pesticides from the crops or catch diseases from the other colonies and these honeybees are also a threat to wild ones within the honeybee hive you have tens of thousands of individuals that need a lot a lot a lot of food they will eat most of the floral resources and there will not be enough left for the other polynesian species if you have many many bees then they will probably out compete this native species very very fast honeybees can also spread disease to wild bees an infected bee can leave some virus on a flower to be picked up by the next wild bee that visits it's not the honeybee's fault but save the bees definitely does not mean adding more into the environment there have been a lot of people that thought that they could only save the bees when having their own beehive in in the backyard and that's the wrong way to conserve pollinators so what's the right way industrial agriculture is the biggest threat to all bees it uses harmful chemicals and relies on huge fields of one crop ideally we change our whole food system but on a personal level supporting small-scale sustainable farmers if viable also supports diverse habitats for wild bees even more can be done with a backyard like leaving native plants alone or planting new ones open sunny ground or dead logs also make great breeding spots for wild bees but most of all they need more attention we need honeybees that aren't in danger of losing them with wild bees it's another story did you have any idea wild bees were that cool i'm in love with osmium cornuca that applebee it's so cute anyway don't forget to like the video and subscribe to our channel we've got new ones every friday [Music]

Channel: DW Planet A

Views: 3,314,728

Keywords: DW, Deutsche Welle, Bees, honeybees, wild bees, insects, biodiversity, food security, farming, agriculture, wild plants, pollination, pollinators, farms, food, crops, hoverflies, Europe, India, United States, conservation, organic, organic food, organic agriculture, organic farming, animals, wildlife, science, discover, survival, nature, honeybee has a job, the hive, pollen to make honey, hive, life cycle, pollen, yt:cc=on, apple pollination, almond pollination, bee extinction documentary, bee extinction

Id: VSYgDssQUtA

Length: 8min 34sec (514 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 30 2021