World Bee Day is an initiative of the United Nations (UN), through the UN General Assembly (UNGA), which it formalized during its 74th plenary meeting on December 20, 2017. The UNGA is composed of all the UN Member States and is the main policy-making organ of the United Nations. During its 74th plenary meeting, the UNGA adopted Resolution A/RES/72/211 which designates May 20 as World Bee Day.
The UNGA, through the Resolution, recognized “the urgent need to address the issue of the worldwide decline of pollinator diversity and the risks that this implies for agriculture sustainability, human livelihoods and food supplies.” The UN’s main policy-making body, through the same resolution, furthered that “the fundamental role and contribution of bees and other pollinators with respect to sustainable food production and nutrition, which thereby promote food security for the world’s growing population and contribute to poverty alleviation, hunger eradication and human health.” It further acknowledged “the contribution of the ecosystem services provided by bees and other pollinators to ecosystem health by safeguarding the state of biodiversity, species and genetic diversity.”
The UNGA also raised the concern “that bees and other pollinators are endangered by a range of factors, in particular the effects of human activities such as changes in land use, intensive agricultural practices and the use of pesticides, as well as pollution, pests, diseases and climate change, which threaten their habitat, health and development.” Hence, it acknowledged that “the urgent need to raise awareness at all levels and to promote and facilitate actions for the protection of bees and other pollinators in order to contribute to their health and development, bearing in mind that enhancing pollinator services is important for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.”
It is from these identified principles and circumstance that the UNGA affirmed “that the observance of a World Bee Day by the international community would contribute significantly to raising awareness of the importance of bees and other pollinators at all levels and would promote global efforts and collective action for their protection.”
The Food and Agriculture of the UN spearheads the observance of the World Bee Day at the international level. The Agricultural Training Institute-Regional Training Center-Cordillera Administrative Region joins the international community and most especially the local beekeeping industry and the rest of the agriculture sector in the Cordillera Administrative Region as together we support and advocate for the protection and conservation of bees and other pollinators.
