NOTES ON THE IMPORTANCE OF BEES (ANTHOPHILA) FOR HUMANS AND THE BIOSPHERE

Abstract

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted by all UN Member States in 2015, envisage a trade-off between human well-being and conservation of environmental resources by 2030 [1]. The biosphere and biodiversity conservation is recognised as the basis for all SDGs. Three interrelated elements are central to the SDG Programme - economic growth, social inclusion, and environmental restoration and protection. Implementation of this Programme will require mobilisation of enormous material resources (5-7 trillion USD annually) and global partnership of all countries - rich, poor and medium-developed - in all spheres of human activity. A recent example of SDG implementation in Europe is the adoption of the unprecedented Law on Nature Restoration in June 2024, after several months of complex negotiations between the EU Council and the European Parliament [2]. This law envisages returning at least 20% of the land and sea surface in the EU countries to a natural state, restoring degraded natural ecosystems with original flora and fauna, which is in line with the SDGs, but will also require enormous efforts.

This article discusses the importance of the bee clade (Apoidea: Anthophila), one of the most important groups of insects for the biosphere in general and for humans in particular. Of the bees, the European honey bee (Apis mellifera Linnaeus, 1758) is of particular importance, the domestication of which has become the basis of productive beekeeping and which provides valuable pollination services for a wide range of crops. Although honeybees found in Europe and Africa are only one of about 20,000 bee species worldwide, they are particularly important as pollinators because of their biological characteristics and large colony sizes. The long history of domestication and widespread transport of A. Mellifera by humans has led to its current cosmopolitan distribution in all climatic zones on all continents except Antarctica.