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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><a
href="http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2011/2011-03-10-01.html">http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2011/2011-03-10-01.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
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<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt;font-weight:bold'>Environment News Source<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<h5><b><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:13.5pt'>Bees
Feel the Stings of a Dozen Deadly Things</span></font><o:p></o:p></b></h5>
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<p class=MsoNormal><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on"><b><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>NAIROBI</span></font></b></st1:City><b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Kenya</st1:country-region></span></b></st1:place>,
March 10, 2011 (ENS) - The disastrous decline in bees that pollinate most of
the world's food crops will continue unless humans profoundly change their
ways, warns a United Nations report released today. More than a dozen factors
are linked to the worldwide loss of bees, from the disappearance of flowering
plants and the use of memory-damaging insecticides to the global spread of
pests, air pollution and climate change. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>New kinds
of virulent fungal pathogens that can be deadly to bees and other pollinators
are now showing up worldwide, migrating from one region to another due to
shipments linked to globalization and rapidly growing international trade, the
report finds. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<h5 style='mso-element:frame'><b><font size=2 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt'>Bees on flowering herb, anise hyssop, <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Ottawa</st1:City>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Canada</st1:country-region></st1:place>
</span></font></b><font size=1><span style='font-size:7.5pt'>(Photo by <a
href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/samspade3/4977054307/" target="_blank">SamSpade3</a>)
</span></font><o:p></o:p></h5>
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<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"Of
the 100 crop species that provide 90 percent of the world's food, over 70 are
pollinated by bees," said UN Environment Programme Executive Director
Achim Steiner today. "The way humanity manages or mismanages its
nature-based assets, including pollinators, will in part define our collective
future in the 21st century." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>But bee
colonies have been collapsing in many parts of the globe, and the <a
href="http://www.unep.org/dewa/Portals/67/pdf/Global_Bee_Colony_Disorder_and_Threats.pdf"
target="_blank">report</a>, "Global Bee Colony Disorders and other Threats
to Insect Pollinators," recommends that farmers be offered incentives to
restore pollinator-friendly habitats such as flowering plants next to
crop-producing fields. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Some
20,000 flowering plant species upon which many bee species depend for food
could be lost over the coming decades without greater conservation efforts. An
Anglo-Dutch study has found that since the 1980s, there has been a 70 percent
drop in key wildflowers among them the mint, pea and perennial herb families. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Meanwhile
the increasing use of chemicals in agriculture is being found to damage bees,
weakening their immune systems, with laboratory studies showing that some
insecticides and fungicides can act together to be 1,000 times more toxic to
bees. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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width=300 height=232 id="_x0000_i1028"
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<h5 style='mso-element:frame'><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><b><font
size=2 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>U.S.</span></font></b></st1:place></st1:country-region>
scientists have found a fungus that attacks varroa mites such as the one
clinging to this honey bee. <font size=1><span style='font-size:7.5pt'>(Photo
by Steven Ausmus courtesy USDA)</span></font> <o:p></o:p></h5>
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<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>They can
also affect the sense of direction, memory and brain metabolism, and herbicides
and pesticides may reduce the availability of plants bees need for food and for
the larval stages of some pollinators. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Air
pollution, too, may be interfering with the ability of bees to find flowering
plants and thus food, with scents that could travel over 800 meters in the
1800s now reaching less than 200 meters from a plant. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Electromagnetic
fields from sources such as power lines might also be changing the behavior of
bees who are sensitive as they have small abdominal crystals that contain lead.
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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width=300 height=251 id="_x0000_i1029"
src="cid:image003.jpg@01CBDFD4.B1AD5A60"><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<h5 style='mso-element:frame'><b><font size=2 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt'>An Africanized honey bee, left, and a European honey
bee on honeycomb. </span></font></b><font size=1><span style='font-size:7.5pt'>(Photo
by Scott Bauer courtesy USDA)</span></font> <o:p></o:p></h5>
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<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Another
factor concerns parasites and pests, such as the Varroa mite which feeds on bee
fluids, and the small hive beetle, which damages honeycombs, stored honey and
pollen. Endemic to sub-Saharan Africa, the small hive beetle has spread to
North America and <st1:country-region w:st="on">Australia</st1:country-region>
and is expected to reach <st1:place w:st="on">Europe</st1:place>. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Bees may
also be suffering from competition by alien species such as the Africanized bee
in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>
and the Asian hornet which feed on European honey bees. The hornet has now
colonized nearly half of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">France</st1:place></st1:country-region>
since 2004. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Looming
over all this is climate change which, left unaddressed, may aggravate the
situation in various ways, including by changing the flowering times of plants
and shifting rainfall patterns, in turn affecting the quality and quantity of
nectar supplies. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"Human
beings have fabricated the illusion that in the 21st century they have the
technological prowess to be independent of nature. Bees underline the reality
that we are more, not less, dependent on nature's services in a world of close
to seven billion people," Steiner said, calling on the world to factor in
the often invisible multi-trillion dollar services provided by nature. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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width=250 height=292 id="_x0000_i1030"
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<h5 style='mso-element:frame'><b><font size=2 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt'>Honey bees swarm in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City
w:st="on">Adelaide</st1:City>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Australia</st1:country-region></st1:place>
</span></font></b><font size=1><span style='font-size:7.5pt'>(Photo by <a
href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/donkeycart/5216608087/" target="_blank">DonkeyCart</a>)</span></font>
<o:p></o:p></h5>
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<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Among the
20,000 known bee species worldwide, the most common domesticated bees are honey
bees, <i><span style='font-style:italic'>Apis mellifera</span></i>. Native to
Europe, Asia and <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place>, their value ranges
from honey production, wax, propolis and royal jelly, to the efficient
pollination of crops. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Declines
in managed bee colonies date back to the mid-1960s in Europe but have
accelerated since 1998, especially in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Belgium</st1:country-region>,
<st1:country-region w:st="on">France</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region
w:st="on">Germany</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Italy</st1:country-region>,
the <st1:country-region w:st="on">Netherlands</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region
w:st="on">Spain</st1:country-region> and the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">United Kingdom</st1:place></st1:country-region>. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>In <st1:place
w:st="on">North America</st1:place>, losses of honey bee colonies since 2004
have left the continent with fewer managed pollinators than at any time in the
past 50 years. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Chinese
beekeepers have recently faced several inexplicable and complex symptoms of
colony losses and a quarter of the beekeepers in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Japan</st1:place></st1:country-region> have recently been confronted
with sudden losses of their colonies. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>In
Africa, Egyptian beekeepers along the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Nile</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">River</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>
have reported signs of colony collapse although there are no other confirmed
reports from the rest of the continent so far. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>As the
world prepares for Rio+20, the meeting in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Rio
de Janeiro</st1:City>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Brazil</st1:country-region></st1:place>,
next year marking the 20th anniversary of the Rio Earth Summit, Steiner called
for investment and re-investment in nature-based services, "including
pollination from insects such as bees." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
report was authored by Stephane Kluser of UNEP, Dr. Peter Neumann of the Swiss
Bee Research Centre, Dr. Marie-Pierre Chauzat of the French Agency for
Environmental and Occupational Health Safety and Dr. Jeffery Pettis of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture - Agricultural Research Service. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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