Bees and other pollinators, such as butterflies, bats and hummingbirds, are increasingly under threat from human activities. To raise awareness of the importance of pollinators, the threats they face and their contribution to sustainable development, the UN designated 20 May as World Bee Day.
BES-Net has been supporting the growing worldwide effort to protect bees and other pollinators by organizing Regional Trialogues. The Trialogues provide scientists, policymakers and practitioners with an enabling space to jointly review the key findings and messages of the Assessment Report on Pollinators, Pollination and Food Production produced by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) in 2016, and to identify the concrete and practical pollinator-friendly actions for implementation at regional and national levels.
On the #WorldBeeDay this year, many of the participants of the post Regional Trialogues joined celebration proactively. For example, Ms. Ruth Spencer, an Advisory Member of the Women4Biodiveristy Network and the participant of the Caribbean Regional Trialogue, contributed a video message, highlighting the potential of wild pollinators not only for improving nutrition and enhancing local livelihoods but also for providing opportunity for building women’s capacity.
Immediately after the Anglophone Africa Regional Trialogue, the participants from science, policy and practice sectors in Nigeria formed a working group to support implementation of agreed actions from the Trialogue. As part of the post-Trialogue effort and under the leadership of the Federal Ministry of Environment, the working group undertook a coordinated social media campaign, circulating messages on bees and other pollinators widely throughout the day. As a result, the working group’s dedicated hashtag, #WeNeedHoneyBee was ranked the 2nd most popular trending Twitter hashtag in the country. The efforts of the Regional Trialogue participants demonstrate that there are various different opportunities to pursue the BES objectives even amid the COVID-19 crisis.
