What Is World Bee Day?
Bees and other pollinators, such as butterflies, bats and hummingbirds, are increasingly under threat from our human activities, but pollination is a fundamental process for the survival of our ecosystem.
Almost 90% of the world’s wildflower plant species depend on animal pollination, alongside more than 75% of the world’s food crops and 35% of global agricultural land. These pollinators not only contribute directly to food security, but they are vital in conserving biodiversity.
To raise awareness of the importance of pollinators, especially bees, and the threats they face, the UN designated the 20th of May as World Bee Day. This event aims to strengthen measures aimed at protecting bees and other pollinators, which would significantly contribute to solving problems relating to the global food supply and the elimination of world hunger in developing countries.
These little bees do a lot!
How Do Bees Impact The Environment?
Bees (and other pollinators) allow plants and food crops to reproduce. The food we eat, the fruits and vegetables, rely directly on these pollinators. They ensure not only the abundance of fruits, nuts, and seeds, but also the variety and quality of these foods, which is crucial for human nutrition.
Beyond foods, bees and pollinators also contribute directly to producing the ingredients we need for medicines, biofuels, construction materials, and fibres like cotton and linen. Many flowering plants only produce seeds if animal pollinators move pollen from the anthers to the stigmas of their flowers. If this didn’t happen, many interconnected species and processes functioning within the ecosystem would collapse.
The UN also says “A diverse assemblage of pollinators, with different traits and responses to ambient conditions, is also one of the best ways to minimize risks due to climate change. Their diversity ensures that there are effective pollinators not just for current conditions, but for future conditions, as well.”
The decline of bees, alongside moths, flies, wasps, beetles, and butterflies, will affect the health and lives of billions of people. Without them, many sustainable development goals, such as the one aiming at ending world hunger and the one aiming at preserving and restoring terrestrial ecosystems, will no longer be attainable.
Family Activities For World Bee Day 2021
Plant Some Bee-Friendly Flowers
A great way to directly help bees and pollinators is to build a sustainable home where they can thrive, a pollinator garden.
Cities are one of the key places to reversing bee decline with the introduction of projects like pollinator gardens in city centres, which are instrumental in the process. Wildflowers are one of the most favoured plants by pollinators.
If you want to create a pollinator garden, consider the location. Look for a natural space in your garden that doesn’t get much foot traffic. Proximity to pesticide-free flowers is a big plus.
Wildflowers are also incredibly easy to plant, you can buy Seedballs that just need to be thrown onto soil or compost in the spring or autumn, and they will grow once the ball becomes moist enough!
Beeswax Crafts
If you want to get the little ones involved, then beeswax crafts are a fun and educational way to celebrate world bee day.
This honey bee’s byproduct can be moulded to create figurines, ornaments, candles, and even scented crayons. You can create these in two ways, one is warming up a block of beeswax up in your hands, or gently in the microwave, to create playdough shaped figurines, or you can use large cookie moulds and melted beeswax to create something a little more precise.
For the older ones, beeswax can be a component to make useful things you’ll use in everyday life, such as beeswax wraps, lip balm or gloss, moisturisers, hair pomades, moustache wax, and furniture or shoe polish.
Visit an Apiary
If you’re looking for an educational outing then a visit to an apiary might be your answer. An apiary, or bee farm, is the place where honey bees are kept to make honey.
A tour of the local apiary will teach your little ones on a guided tour and give them insights on how bees are cared for and how they create honey. Tours will often guide you from the honey making process from hive to jar, all the aspects of life as a bee, how they create amazing honeycombs, and more about their natural predators.
This is also a great way to help those with a small fear of bees. Let your little ones know that only the female bees can sting, which disqualifies half the bee population from posing a “threat”, let them know how there are around 500 species of bees that are stingless, reducing the potential threat further.
Buy Local
One of the easiest ways to support bees is to buy raw, unprocessed honey from local beekeepers. This supports your local bee population and allows farmers who are helping the bees, to continue helping bees. You could also sponsor or adopt a hive to reduce the risk of extinction, and boost local bee populations.
Download The Goethical App This World Bee Day
Shop from GoEthical during 2021 to help make sustainable lifestyle choices, whether you have a specific product in mind or you’re looking for items to reduce your waste. Buy and sell ethical & eco-friendly, artisan, and pre-loved and products at GoEthical. Best of all while you shop you will be supporting one of our eco partners, Bees Abroad, who deliver projects that help relieve poverty through beekeeping, enhancing their livelihoods and improving their quality of life.
If you want to browse an array of environmentally friendly and sustainable products, all you need to do is download the GoEthical App for IOS or Google Play. On it, you can chat and connect with like-minded community members and discover detailed listings for ethical and eco products, from small sellers to well-known global brands.
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