This year’s World Bee Day on 20th May celebrated the vital role bees play in global food systems, pollinating most of the crops we eat, and those used to feed farm livestock.
According to Wheen Bee Foundation CEO Fiona Chambers, when we sit down to dinner, we can thank bees for much of what is on our plate. “Here in Australia, at least fifty-three crops rely to some extent on bees. These include almonds, avocados, apples, berries, stone fruit and carrot, but also oilseeds such as canola, and legumes like clover and lucerne that feed farm livestock.”
“While many people have some understanding of the importance of bees, most don’t know the true extent to which we depend on bees for the food we eat every day,” Ms Chambers has said. “Most people know bees play a role in food production, but few know the sheer scale of their contribution.”
In 2014-15 researchers at Curtin University estimated the economic value of pollination services provided by managed and wild bees to be $14.2billion1.
The problem we now face is that bee populations are dying at an alarming rate worldwide, adversely affecting our entire ecosystem.
After the federal government abandoned its varroa mite eradication strategy in 2023, Tasmania became the last safe haven in Australia for bees. While the mite has not yet reached Tasmania, the state’s beekeepers are concerned about its potential spread.
Forico is in the fortunate position of being ideally positioned to support many of Tasmania’s beekeepers. Interwoven with our production plantation sites, we manage 77,000 hectares of natural forest and grassland vegetation for conservation purposes and make sites available to registered beekeepers by agreement. Some are used as hive sites during the months when Tasmania’s native vegetation is in blossom, and other sites are used to store hives over the cooler months when the bees form their ‘winter cluster’ to conserve heat.
Apiarist Michael Rocca of Anroc Farms is the northwest representative of the Tasmanian Beekeepers Association and produces honey and honey products from around 250 hives, each with about 50,000 bees, across the summer season. He stores his hives in a patch of natural forest managed by Forico over winter, and crosses Forico’s estate to access hives on forestry land in summer.
“Collaborating with Forico has been instrumental in maintaining the health and productivity of my hives,” Mr Rocca says. “Their conservation efforts and provision of natural forest areas for hive storage not only support sustainable beekeeping practices but also contribute to the preservation of Tasmania’s unique flora. This partnership allows us to produce high quality honey while ensuring the wellbeing of our bees throughout the year.”
Supporting beekeepers and the bee population is one of the ongoing sustainability projects by which we manage the landscape Forico is responsible for in ways which will benefit future generations. It is a key component of the sustainable nature of our business, demonstrated through our certification from two recognised standards:
- The Forest Stewardship® (FSC®) Certification Scheme, through which we were awarded FSC® Ecosystem Services certification in 2022 for our work in the conservation of natural forest characteristics and species diversity;
- The Responsible Wood (RW) Certification Scheme which is endorsed through the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes (PEFC).
Forico recognises the work carried out by many forestry companies to support businesses in the beekeeping industry as essential. The global bee population needs help from us all in finding safe haven.
Each year, World Bee Day is a call to action for us all to do what we can to support bees and beekeepers. They are providing us with so much more than honey: they are the gatekeepers of our ongoing food security. “World Bee Day is a wonderful reminder of the critical role bees play in our ecosystem and agriculture,” adds Mr Rocca.
Find out what you can do to support bees in your backyard, at group events for kindergartens, schools and community groups or as a consumer of honey, on the World Bee Day website.
Watch this video message for World Bee Day 2023 by the Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia, His Excellency General the Honourable David Hurley AC DSC (Retd), in which he speaks about the work bees carry out as pollinators, vital for us and for our ecosystem.
1: Karasinski J. M. (2018): ‘The Economic Valuation of Australian Managed and Wild Honey Bee Pollinators in 2014-2015’. Retrieved from Wheen Bee Foundation website.
Stock images: Unsplash.