“World Bee Day has contributed significantly to raising awareness of the importance of bees and other pollinators and to promoting international cooperation to protect them,” said Nataša Pirc Musar, President of the Republic of Slovenia.

Her country initiated the establishment of a World Bee Day in 2016 at an FAO regional conference for Europe and co-created more than 300 pollinator projects with partners on all continents, she said.

For its part, the United Nations marked World Bee Day 2023 with an FAO-hosted global ceremony emphasizing the importance of these hard-working pollinators. 

Under the theme of pollinator-friendly agricultural production, the event drew attention to the threats endangering these insects and the need to address them.

On Monday, an event at United Nations Headquarters will showcase best practices and innovative projects with a view to raising awareness of bees' contributions to environmental and social resilience.

“Protecting bees and other pollinators is essential to guarantee agricultural production, food security, ecosystems restoration, and plant health,” FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu said.

Ensuring bee health is a goal of the United Nations food agency, especially in light of threats against them, including unsustainable agriculture, pesticide abuse, and intensive monoculture production.

Pollination is essential for the maintenance of plant biodiversity, the survival of the world’s ecosystems, with about 75 percent of crops – which produce fruits and other seeds for human consumption – depending, at least in part, on pollinators, including bees, FAO said.

Pollinator-friendly practices include crop rotation and diversity, reducing the use of pesticides, and restoring and protecting their habitat. Even the adoption of precision agriculture tools and innovation can protect bees, the agency said.

To help to better protect the pollinators, the agency hosted and co-organized on Thursday the second International Symposium on Biosecurity in Beekeeping, bringing participants up to date on the latest developments in bee biosecurity and the initiatives that the international organizations involved are applying in different areas of the world to ensure bee health.