Future of the Environment

Keeping honeybees doesn't save the environment - it doesn't even save the bees

A bee is covered with pollen as it sits on a blade of grass on a lawn in Klosterneuburg April 29, 2013. The European Commission said on Monday it would go ahead and impose a temporary ban on three of the world's most widely used pesticides because of fears they harm bees, despite EU governments failing to agree on the issue. In a vote on Monday, EU officials could not decide whether to impose a two-year ban - with some exceptions - on a class of pesticides known as neonicotinoids, produced mainly by Germany's Bayer and Switzerland's Syngenta. The Commission proposed the ban in January after EU scientists said the chemicals posed an acute risk to honeybees, which pollinate many of the crops grown commercially in Europe. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader (AUSTRIA - Tags: AGRICULTURE ANIMALS ENVIRONMENT TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)

It’s the equivalent of farming chickens to save wild birds. Image: REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader

Olivia Norfolk
Lecturer in Conservation Ecology, Anglia Ruskin University
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Male Hairy-footed flower bee (Anthophora plumipes) feeding on comfrey. North Devon, UK.
Image: Shutterstock
An amateur beekeeper examines a frame from the hive.
Image: Shutterstock
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Related topics:
Future of the EnvironmentAgriculture, Food and BeverageUnited Kingdom
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