World Bee Day: why 20 May matters

20 May is World Bee Day. The UN General Assembly proclaimed it in 2017 following a proposal from Slovenia, and it was first celebrated in 2018. The date honours Anton Janša, a pioneer of modern beekeeping born on 20 May 1734. The FAO’s World Bee Day page explains its origins and purpose.

A partnership millions of years old

Bees and flowering plants have been evolving together for millions of years. Their relationship is built on a practical exchange:

Partner	What it provides	What it gains
The flowering plant	Nectar supplies sugars; pollen supplies protein, fats and other nutrients	Pollen transfer between flowers, helping fertilisation and seed formation
The bee	Transport of pollen while visiting flowers	Its main food resources: nectar and pollen

Many insects pollinate flowers, and bees are a particularly important group. Some, including honey bees, live in colonies; others are solitary. They include both stinging and stingless bees. Spain’s 2020 conservation strategy listed 1,105 species and subspecies. European information from this period describes around 2,000 wild bee species across Europe—roughly one tenth of the world total used at the time. These are dated reference figures, not an up-to-date census.

For people, pollination helps provide a varied diet, including many nutrient-rich fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. It also supports plants used for some medicines, fibres, fuels and other materials. That does not mean that every crop or every timber species depends on insects: plants can also be wind-pollinated or self-pollinating.

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What is putting pollinators under pressure?

Pressure	How it can affect pollinators
Climate change	Changing temperatures and extreme weather can disrupt the overlap between flowering and pollinator activity
Land-use change	Urban development and intensive agriculture can remove or degrade habitat, reducing flowers and nesting sites
Pesticides	Depending on the substance, dose and exposure, effects may be lethal or sublethal. Herbicides can also reduce flowering food resources; not all pesticides act in the same way

A mismatch in timing is easy to overlook. It is not enough for both a flowering plant and its pollinator to remain present: their active periods must still overlap for the interaction to work.

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Farming with pollinators in mind

At the 10th Spanish National Beekeeping Congress in 2022, we attended a presentation entitled “Healthy crops, happy bees” (Cultivos sanos, abejas felices). It described the approach of VERDCAMP, a vegetable-growing business in Tarragona that incorporates pollinator management into its farming practices—not merely as an occasional contracted service, but as part of the production system.

A related professional activity is the provision of managed pollination services (in Spanish). This requires more than simply placing hives beside a crop: colony strength should be assessed, a dependable water supply arranged, and growers and beekeepers should agree how to avoid harmful pesticide exposure during flowering. The practical arrangements must suit the crop, the bees and the products involved.

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The beekeeper’s role

Honey bees can be effective pollinators of crops and wild plants, but they are not the best pollinator for every plant and do not replace wild pollinators. Beekeepers help their managed colonies by monitoring health, controlling parasites and diseases, and, where appropriate, moving them to follow flowering and maintain access to forage throughout the year.

For further reading, these guides are currently in Spanish: what pollination is and how bees contribute, whether bees are disappearing, and colony collapse disorder.