beesThe British government has assembled a £10 million fighting fund to bankroll efforts to halt the decline of the country’s bee population which beekeepers claim could pose a greater threat to humanity than the current financial crisis.

The number of British bees is estimated to have declined by about 10 to 15 percent in the past two years. The United States, France and many other countries have suffered similarly sharp declines, which have been attributed to a combination of pests, diseases, flower loss in the countryside and the effects of global warming.

Environmentalists have also called for certain pesticides which they claim are harmful to bees to be banned.

<!– @page { margin: 2cm } P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm } –>In Spain last week, scientists said they had identified a parasite-borne infection which had been attacking bee populations there and successfully treated two affected colonies with antibiotics, Conservation Magazine reported.

As well as producing honey, bees and other insect pollinators such as butterflies play a key support role in the agricultural industry by pollinating vegetable and fruit crops.

beesAccording to the British Beekeepers’ Association (BBKA), the insects contribute around £165 million a year to the economy.

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn told BBC Radio Four that around one in three mouthfuls of food we eat has been pollinated by bees.

“Bees are really important to our economy, to biodiversity,” he said. “This is a real wake-up call for the world.”

In addition to £2 million already donated directly by the government, additional research funding is being provided by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the Scottish Government and the Wellcome Trust.

“What we’re hoping for is that across the £10 million, we will fund scientists who will be able to look at the entire system – environmental factors, social factors, agricultural factors – to address this problem as a whole,” BBSRC spokesman Matt Goode told CNN.

“We want to build a new community of pollinator scientists that can keep on top of this for the future as well.”

The UK has around 250,000 bee hives, mostly maintained by amateur beekeepers for pleasure rather than profit.

The UK already imports around 80 percent of its honey and beekeepers warn that its price could shoot up if bee declines continue worldwide.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 21st, 2009 at 5:35 pm and is filed under Conservation, Farms, Insects. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.