Bees play a vital role in pollination and our food system. Approximately one third of the food we eat depends on bee pollination. Bees pollinate about one-sixth of the world's flowering plants and some 400 agricultural crops. Around 30% of food crops worldwide rely on pollinators like bees, providing over 15-30% of global food supplies and nutritional needs. The survival of bees and other pollinators is important for genetic diversity in plants and stability in ecosystems.

3. What we can learn from bees
 Bees are pollinators vital
to our food chain. One
third of the food we eat
would not be available
but for bees.

4. What we can learn from bees
 Bees pollinate about
one-sixth of the world's
flowering plant species
and some 400 of its
agricultural plants

5. What we can learn from bees

 Pollinators are vital to
production agriculture.
Approximately 30 percent of the
food and fiber crops grown
throughout the world depend
upon pollinators for
reproduction. The fruits and
seeds from these crop species
provide 15 to 30 percent of the
foods and beverages consumed
by humans. Roughly translated,
approximately one out of every
four mouthfuls of food and
drink that we consume are
produced from pollination
services provided by pollinators.

6. What we can learn from bees
 Poorly pollinated plants
produce fewer, often
misshapen, fruits and
lower yields of seed with
inevitable consequences
upon quality, availability
and price of food.

7. What we can learn from bees
 Bee pollination improves
crop quality, shelf life
and commercial value

8. What we can learn from bees
 Pollinators strongly
influence ecological
relationships, ecosystem
conservation and stability,
genetic variation in the
plant community, floral
diversity, specialization
and evolution. Bees play an
important, but little
recognized role in most
terrestrial ecosystems
where there is green
vegetation cover for at least
3 to 4 months each year.

9. What we can learn from bees
 Bees, like other insects,
are part of a food chain.

10. What we can learn from bees
 In tropical forests, savannah
woodlands, mangrove, and in
temperate deciduous forests,
many species of plants and
animals would not survive if
bees were missing. This is
because the production of
seeds, nuts, berries and fruits
are highly dependent on
insect pollination, and
among the pollinating
insects, bees are the major
pollinators. In rain forests

11. What we can learn from bees
 The social life of the
honey bee colony
provides a controversial
start to thinking about
the structure of societies.

12. What we can learn from bees
 The tools which have
evolved on the limbs and
mouthparts of bees are
neat examples of
adaptation and
engineering.

13. What we can learn from bees
 The harvest from honey
bees of honey, pollen,
wax and propolis has
nutritional, craft,
manufacturing, and
medical applications.

14. What we can learn from bees
 Pollination by bees is
important for genetic
sustainability. Genes that
have evolved in other
animals are important to
our future, too.

15. What we can learn from bees
 Attitudes to bees must
change and a new
generation needs to be
educated into the value
of bees and the threats to
their existence.

16. What we can learn from bees
 Without bees, many
flowering plants fail to
set seed and without
flowering plants, there is
no food for bees.

17. What we can learn from bees