Once again, we celebrate World Bee Day. United Nations designated 20 May as World Bee Day to raise awareness of the importance of pollinators and the threats they face. Every year, we celebrate this day in Poland by promoting the role of bees and other pollinators.
“Beekeeping is a widespread and global activity, with millions of beekeepers depending on bees for their livelihoods and well-being. Together with wild pollinators, bees play a major role in maintaining biodiversity, ensuring the survival and reproduction of many plants, supporting forest regeneration, promoting sustainability and adaptation to climate change, improving the quantity and quality of agricultural productions,” writes United Nations on their official website about this year’s World Bee Day.
World Bees Day, which has been celebrated since 2018, was launched by the United Nations at the initiative of Slovenia. The aim is to underline the importance of bees for food production and to draw attention to the dangers they face.
Let’s remember that bees and other pollinators make a great job for humanity. The process of pollination is a fundamental one for the survival of our ecosystems. “Nearly 90% of the world’s wild flowering plant species depend, entirely, or at least in part, on animal pollination, along with more than 75% of the world’s food crops and 35% of global agricultural land. Not only do pollinators contribute directly to food security, but they are key to conserving biodiversity,” informs United Nations.
However, we should remember that each of us can contribute to the protection of bees. The easiest ways to protect them are as follows:
- to house them in our gardens,
- concern for the environment,
- leave a portion of the unmown lawn in the garden where a flower meadow can be planted,
- planting or sowing honey plants with different flowering times,
- not burning of grasses, stems and flowers of the last year – many insect species hide there,
- creating watering places (especially on sunny days), f.ex., on small stones, so that the insects can drink in peace without the threat of wetting their wings.