Agroaldea[REPORTAGE]
They anticipated our current crisis a decade ago. Who understood that something important was happening to the bees, they coined the term “Global Crisis in Hives”. Since then, Its decline has been unstoppable and its effects are much greater than previously thought.. There are already those who wonder what a world would be like without bees: Would it be possible?.
The situation is becoming desperate for many beekeepers who have been observing, year after year, a constant and progressive loss of the number of its hives. It is not a fact that it takes place in a certain part of the planet, is common to all of him.
Last week, like every month, Emilio Deniz, opened one of his most 70 hives in the Tejeda basin – The village. For days I had been noticing strange behavior in the few bees I saw..
Equipped with his suit, hood and smoker began to extract the honeycombs: there were no bees. He opened another hive and observed, with desolation, that there were only a handful of bees that protected and fed a queen.
Only a 30 percent of their hives maintained an activity “acceptable”, but, from far, what the activity had entailed years ago. “They have been telling us for years that something is wrong.: the varroa, the few years in flowering, the parasites, and if it was not enough, the asian wasp. The Canary Islands are not immune and this does not look good at all”, Emilio explained to us.
The remoteness of the continents has allowed us some protection. But the communications, globalization and the health of the planet in general, They no longer exempt us from suffering “Global Crisis in Hives”.
According to data from the administrations, scientists, entomologists and beekeepers associations, in Spain the 75 percent of hives are affected. The situation in Europe is not much better, where the virulence of the Asian wasp has made a deep dent in the already delicate situation.
In the United States, it is estimated that four million hives have disappeared out of the six that it had.. In the case of China, one of the world's largest producers, bees have completely disappeared due to the abusive use of pesticides.
This situation has caused thousands of Chinese farmers to hand-pollinate their crops., preferably fruit trees in which they distribute the pollen with the help of small brushes.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO, has already warned that, to continue reducing the number of bees at the current rate, a food crisis with fatal consequences would occur.
Without bees we would stop eating almonds, chocolate, fruits, vegetables… Only in Europe 84 percent of the 264 crop species are pollinated by bees. Would we be prepared to assume the cost of production if we had to pollinate like in China??
Crops intended for food for livestock and, little by little, the meat industry would collapse. So, our only source of protein would become fish and, probably, the seas and oceans would be depleted.
Given this dramatic perspective, Scientists have tried to study the possible culprits of this situation. Firstly, some pesticides were suspected, but they were soon ruled out as the main cause.
So they set their sights on an instinctive parasite, the November apis, but things still didn't add up. In 2005, In the United States they coined the term Mass Depopulation Syndrome, which perfectly describes how events happen..
The beekeeper only notices that honey production decreases slightly, because there are fewer and fewer bees to make honey. There is no trace of the corpses because the bees die far from the hives, in curious solidarity with his companions.
However, By applying molecular biology techniques, they were able to identify a parasite in European bees that was not typical of the continent.: the Nosema ceranae. A few ago 20 years ago it must have arrived from Asia in imported boxes with beekeeping material and in consignments of bees (composed of a kilo of bees with a queen).
This parasite was discovered to be a microsporid. A tiny being that enters the cells of adult bees and causes intestinal alterations and premature aging. This causes the bees in a hive to die faster than the queen can replenish..
Investigators have identified the killer, but they still don't know how to stop it. And while science searches for a remedy, the hives continue to empty. Will the solution arrive in time??.
This seems like the big question because, while, The bees continue to suffer all kinds of inclemencies. The well-known climate change has been joined by pollution that is destroying fragrances..
In the 19th century, flowers smelled more than they do now.. The aromatic substances at that time traveled from the flower, through the air, until we reach our noses and even those of the bees, more than a kilometer.
Today, they do not cover even a few 300 meters. This makes it difficult for pollinators to locate them and carry out their work.. Acid rain, pesticide application, the voracious destruction of ecosystems, they add to what the collapse could mean.
While this keeps happening, Emilio tries to rebuild his hives and take advantage of the excellent flowering year for this area of the island.. Honey quality continues to improve, could be a consequence of the sacrifice made by the bee and, even in his last hours, keep giving your all, Deniz said..