Thread by @AJEnglish

THREAD 👇

It’s #WorldBeeDay 🐝

Here's how bees play a vital role in increasing food security, improving nutrition as well as keeping our planet healthy.

It’s important to support the sustainable development of beekeeping in order to protect and enhance bees and their habitats.

We should be grateful to our bees and other pollinators:

🐝 They improve our diets by providing micronutrient-rich foods
🐝 They give us honey
🐝 They make our foods taste better
🐝 They increase food production and food security
🐝 They maintain biodiversity #WorldBeeDay

According to @FAO, pollinators like bees affect 35% of global agricultural land, supporting the production of 87 of the leading food crops worldwide. #WorldBeeDay

@FAO What do bees have to do with fighting world hunger?

Over 80% of human food is supplied by plants, according to the @UN. Therefore pollinators like bees play an essential role in helping to feed a rising world population in a sustainable way and creating new jobs. #WorldBeeDay

@FAO @UN Disappearing pollinators can mean losing some of the nutritious food we need for a healthy diet.

A world without pollinators is a world without some of the foods we need for good nutrition: @FAO | #WorldBeeDay

@FAO @UN But bees and other pollinators are under threat. Present species extinction rates are 100 to 1 000 times higher than normal due to human impacts: @FAO

This is mainly due to intensive agricultural practices, pesticides, alien invasive species, diseases, and pests. #WorldBeeDay

@FAO @UN Climate change also has a negative impact on bees.

According to @FAO, higher temperatures, droughts, floods, other extreme climate events and changes of flowering time hinder pollination. #WorldBeeDay

@FAO @UN Helping to keep our pollinators safe supports our food production, the incomes of farmers, and the wider environment. #WorldBeeDay