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L'apicoltura provoca più danni che benefici?

Mentre gli alveari gestiti si moltiplicano, le api selvatiche e le farfalle stanno scomparendo. Dato che le api da miele non sono a rischio d’estinzione, l'apicoltura è responsabile del declino delle altre api?

In collaborazione con The European Commission

ALTRE INFORMAZIONI : http://it.euronews.com/2025/07/03/lapicoltura-provoca-piu-danni-che-benefici

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00:00Is honey beekeeping doing more harm than good?
00:03One third of pollinator species,
00:05such as bees, butterflies, bats and hummingbirds,
00:08are in decline in many parts of the world.
00:11In Europe, one out of ten bee and butterfly species
00:14is threatened with extinction.
00:21Without pollination, there is no plant reproduction.
00:24Many plant species would decline and eventually disappear.
00:28Almonds, apples, coffee and strawberries are some of the foods
00:33that depend on the essential pollination work carried out by bees.
00:37What is really happening is that we are losing
00:39the rare and dangerous species,
00:42and we are reducing the populations of many bees.
00:46And for this, we don't need to speculate.
00:48We already know that in agricultural areas,
00:51very intensive with large monocultures,
00:54they lose most of their wealthy populations,
00:58and the crop yields have declined consequently.
01:03So for humans, a first clear impact
01:07is that the crop production will decrease.
01:11There are 20,000 different species of bees,
01:14species of flies, butterflies, moths, wasps, beetles,
01:18drips, birds, bats and other vertebrates.
01:21However, humans can only domesticate or manage honeybees,
01:25which isn't always the most effective species,
01:28either in how much they can pollinate
01:30or the range of plants they serve.
01:32As wild bee and butterfly population shrink,
01:35the number of honey bee hives in the European Union
01:38has been steadily growing.
01:40The EU is the world's second largest honey producer after China.
01:46The drivers of pollinator decline are well known.
01:49Land use changes, intensive farming,
01:52pesticide use, pollution, invasive species,
01:55infectious diseases and climate change.
01:58But now, some scientists say honey beekeeping
02:01could be making things worse.
02:03So in the agricultural areas we were working on in Spain,
02:06in Spain, which were orange groves.
02:09And beekeepers put hives close to these groves to get honey.
02:15But then what happens with oranges
02:18is that they flower all at the same time
02:20and they flower for a short period of time,
02:22something like a week or something like that.
02:24And then when all those orange flowers disappear,
02:27those bees, they were moving into the surrounding areas
02:31in search for extra food.
02:34So, could large honey bee hives be depriving wild bees
02:37of the food they need to survive?
02:39They have very large colonies
02:41of tens of thousands of individuals
02:43and are extremely good at finding flower resources
02:46and foraging for those resources.
02:48So when there is abundance of honey bees
02:51in the neighborhood,
02:52you have some serious competition.
02:54Those wild bees are really under serious competition.
02:57For that reason, for many ecologists,
02:59honey beekeeping is not protecting biodiversity.
03:03In some cases, it may even be harmful,
03:06especially where there are fewer flowers like urban spaces.
03:10I've even seen some campaigns trying to increase
03:13the amount of honey bee hives,
03:15like commercial honey bee hives to rescue pollinators.
03:19And for me, that would be equivalent to say
03:21like we need more chicken farms to save the bird biodiversity.
03:24So, what's the solution to saving wild bees?
03:28If I can plant a wildflower patch in my garden,
03:31if you can do the same bit by bit,
03:34it just exponentiates and extrapolates.
03:37And it's just one step that you can do.
03:40The solutions may sound simple,
03:42but putting them into practice is not always straightforward.
03:45Many of these steps are already encouraged by the EU Pollinators Initiative,
03:50but adoption remains a challenge.
03:52Researchers agree.
03:54The most important step is raising awareness and educating the public.
03:59Planting native flowers,
04:01the ones that local bees have evolved with,
04:03can make a big difference.
04:04Think borage, comfrey, lavander and dandelions.
04:08And rather than keeping lawns perfectly trimmed,
04:12let them grow a little wild.
04:14Avoid pesticide use whenever possible.
04:17Because bees don't just help us grow food,
04:19they serve as bio-indicators of ecosystem health.
04:23So, if wild bees are driving in your garden,
04:26you're helping biodiversity drive too.

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