The bee crisis - an environmental time bomb?
The disappearance of the bees is a litmus test for the general state of our planet. Bees play a key role in our food chain, and the impact of their decline across the globe could prove devastating for both our food supplies and our economy.
Help us save the bees and we will send you a free packet of wildflowers seeds.
The humble bee plays a vital role in our global food chain. Bees are the world's key pollinators, responsible for pollinating 75% of our main food and other crops, such as cotton, worldwide. And here in the UK, bees help make around 35% of the food we eat. Without bees, we'll be pollinating our crops by hand - as Chinese farmers have been doing in orchards, with pots of pollen and paintbrushes, due to the eradication of local bee populations. It sounds desperate, and it's certainly not a sustainable solution - not least because scientists estimate that the cost of hand pollination would be more than £1.8 billion. Every single year.
Why are the bees disappearing?
There are two key factors in the decline of bee populations: loss of habitat and the intensive use of pesticides. In the past 60 years, we've lost 97% of our wildflower meadows. Add to this the loss of much of our natural hedgerow and woodland thanks to modern farming methods, and you leave the bees without flowers to forage or safe nesting sites. Our bees are hungry, homeless and dying.
Then there's the hotly debated issue of pesticides used in farming. In 2013, a two-year restriction was put on the use of three neonicotinoid pesticides by the EU, after they were found to present a high risk to bees. The pesticides industry has been fighting the ban ever since and, as a result, a growing number of studies have been carried out that show that these pesticides do harm bees.
A growing weight of evidence
In June 2014, the largest global study into the effects of pesticides concluded that neonicotinoids are causing proven and significant damage to a number of species, and that they're a key factor in the decline of bees. A study by the Universities of Dundee and St Andrews found further evidence that these pesticides cause brain dysfunction in bumblebees, and colonies to perform poorly.
In your own back yard
So what can you do? Thanks to people power, Friends of the Earth's Bee Cause has successfully pushed the UK Government to implement a bee action plan - the National Pollinator Strategy - to act on the critical issue of bee decline. But your own garden, allotment or window box is the ideal place to join the fight. With your help, we can bring back some of the precious green space the bees need to keep our world healthy.