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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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From:
Peter Loring Borst <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sat, 20 Feb 2010 08:03:25 -0500
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Here Robin Thorp, et al suggest that funds could be obtained to
restore native pollinators by siphoning off the money that growers pay
to beekeepers:

> A simple estimate suggests that collectively farmers could redirect up to 30.1 million dollars per year to conserving and restoring bee habitat simply by reducing honey bee rentals 15–50%. The actual amount required to offset opportunity costs and restore the service partially or fully is unknown, including how financial resources and restoration would need to be distributed spatially across the agro-natural landscape to provide adequate services.

They realistically acknowledge that restoring native habitat and flora
for these bees could actually reduce the productivity of farms, due in
part from increased insect pests:

> Restoring pollination services in areas of greatest agricultural intensity would require both reducing insecticide use and restoring native or surrogate vegetation to provide nesting habitat and floral resources for bees when they are not using crops. Although this would incur opportunity costs from potentially reduced crop productivity due to losses from pest insects, weeds, and diminished crop area, it is likely that restoration strategies could be devised for net economic benefit.

They correctly point to the decline in beekeeping but suggest that
money and effort be expended toward wild bees to hypothetically
restore the loss of pollination services previously done by honey
bees:

> The value of crop pollination by the most important managed pollinator, the honey bee Apis mellifera, is estimated to be 5–14 billion dollars per year in the United States alone. This critical service is now compromised by the decline of beekeeping (~ 50% since 1950) due to diseases, loss of subsidies, and insecticide poisoning; coupled with increasing demand, this decline is leading to price increases.

> In the United States, beekeeping is likely to decline further as the Africanized race of A. mellifera continues to spread northwards from its introduction site in Brazil. In the southwestern United States, Africanized A. mellifera already hybridized with managed colonies of European honey bees, conferring an aggressive trait and creating liability concerns for beekeepers.

Thorp et al speculate on how native bees "might" be able to do the
job, but clearly admit that little is known about  pollination
services by wild bees. While they remain cheerfully optimistic, the
fact remains that they simply have not made a case that wild bees
could ever provide significant pollination services, particularly as
they are in decline as much or more than honey bees.

> Native bee communities might provide an insurance policy in the event of honey bee shortages and may already contribute substantially to crop pollination. Little is known, however, about such ‘‘unsolicited’’ pollination services by wild bees, or about their susceptibility to environmental changes such as habitat loss and degradation.

Crop pollination from native bees at risk from agricultural intensification
Claire Kremen, Neal M. Williams, and Robbin W. Thorp
PNAS	December 24, 2002	vol. 99	no. 26

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