According to a recent United Nations report, the potentially disastrous decline in bees, impacting the vital pollinating element in food production for the growing global population, is likely to continue unless humans dramatically change their ways. The United Nations define these "ways" as everything from insecticides to air pollution and go on to say:

"The way humanity manages or mismanages its nature-based assets, including pollinators, will in part define our collective future in the 21st centurey." UN Environment Programme executive director Achim Steiner said "The fact is that of the 100 crop species that provide 90% of the worlds foods, more than 70 are pollinated by bees."

Bee colonies are being decimated in many countries across the globe and the report 'Global Honey Bee Colony Disorders and other Threats to Insect Pollinators' cites more than a dozen potential factors ranging from declines in flowering plants and the use of memory-damaging insecticides, to the worldwide spread of pests and air pollution. It suggests farmers be offered incentives to restore pollinator-friendly habitats such as strips of flowering plants next to crop-producing fields.

Read the full report here: Global Honey Bee Colony Disorders and other Threats to Insect Pollinators

Steiner said "Human beings have fabricated the illusion that in the 21st century they have the technological prowess to be independent of nature. Bees underline the reality that we are more, not less, dependent on nature's services in a world of close to seven billion people." Steiner calls on the world to factor in the often invisible multi-trillion dollar services provided by nature.

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