Le api mellifere e gli impollinatori selvatici possono coesistere?

euronews (in Italiano)

Le api mellifere e gli impollinatori selvatici possono coesistere?  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  Abbonati, euronews è disponibile in 12 lingue.

Transcript

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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