UN celebrates World Bee Day – FAO and Slovenia host NY ceremony

“Celebrating World Bee Day is not just about giving bees overdue recognition and ensuring their survival. It also speaks directly to our future and to achieving the 2030 Agenda,” said Carla Mucavi, Director of the FAO Liaison Office in New York, at the inaugural World Bee Day Celebration on 24 May in New York.

Co-organized by FAO and the Permanent Mission of Slovenia to the United Nations, the commemorative event sought to draw attention to the essential functions that bees and other pollinators play in keeping people and the planet healthy. The event also marked the donation of a traditional Slovenian beehive by the Government of Slovenia to the United Nations.

Opening the event, the Permanent Representative of Slovenia to the UN, Ambassador Darja Kuret, highlighted contribution of bees and other pollinators to sustainable development.

Miroslav Lajčák, President of the 72nd Session of the UN General Assembly, delivered the keynote speech, recognising the importance of bees and stressing the need to protect them. "In the hive, each one plays their individual role; but together it’s a united effort. For our own hive – the General Assembly – it’s a powerful lesson," Lajčák said.

More than 75 percent of the world's food crops rely to some extent on pollination for yield and quality. The absence of bees and other pollinators would wipe out coffee, apples, almonds, tomatoes and cocoa, to name just a few of the crops that rely on pollination.

The observance of 20 May as World Bee Day is a result of a process led by the Government of Slovenia, which presented the initiative for the first time at the FAO Regional Conference for Europe held in Turkey in May 2016. The proposal was then endorsed by the FAO Committee on Agriculture and, finally, by the FAO Conference in 2017, that charged the FAO Director-General to request the General Assembly to consider proclaiming World Bee Day. The resolution was adopted last December.

FAO carries out various activities to encourage pollinator-friendly practices in agricultural management, including the Global Action on Pollination Services for Sustainable Agriculture and the International Pollinators Initiative.