Imagine that you sit down for a healthy breakfast – some muesli and fruit, topped with some yoghurt and a drizzle of honey (of course). A cup of coffee on the side, perhaps. Now, lets re-imagine that breakfast if there were no bees in the world: No honey (of course), but also, no fruit, no coffee (that’s right, no coffee) and probably nothing left of your muesli except a few oats.

Bees play a vital role in food production as ‘pollinators’. They carry pollen from one plant to another, which enables flowering plants to be fertilized and go on to produce fruit and, importantly, seeds. (Other insects such as butterflies, moths and beetles are also pollinators).

Unfortunately though, pollinators are under threat from human activity, with bee numbers in decline for the last fifty years. This poses a serious challenge to our ability to produce nutritious food, not to mention other essential plant products such as medicines and clothing fibres. Click on the tabs on this UN Website for more information and also for actions that people can take to encourage healthy populations of bees.