Let’s Save Canada’s Pollinators (And No, I Don’t Mean Honey Bees)

​

“Save the Pollinators!” has become a catch phrase chanted by conservationists and echoed by nature lovers alike for several years. For many, the term “pollinator” is closely associated with the honey bee (Apis mellifera). While honey bee conservation is important for meeting national food demands, the primary focus on honey bees has led to an oversimplified idea of who Canada’s pollinators are, and has distracted research and conservation efforts from other pollinating species. The good news is that broadly understanding who the pollinators are, the roles they fill within their ecosystems, and the factors influencing their declines can enable YOU to take action in pollinator conservation, right in your own backyard!

 

Honey bees have been treated as the superstars of pollinator conservation because they are depended on for the majority of agricultural plant pollination in Canada, where honey bee pollination is a billion dollar industry1. Today, most of Canada’s honey bees are essentially livestock that are farmed for their honey producing and pollinating services. Without these “honey bee farms”, many Canadian crops such as apples, cherries, peaches, cucumbers, pumpkins, and blueberries could not be produced2. Crop pollination was historically provided “for free” by wild pollinators. However, the increase in industrial agriculture in combination with declining numbers of wild pollinators has driven the human managed bee business to “bee” essential in maintaining the needs of today’s food industry3.

​

Managed honey bee colonies experience significant declines every year. For example, from 2018-2019, 25% of bee colonies died in Canada4. While these numbers may appear alarming, the efforts of beekeepers to manage colonies and replace these losses have buffered the overall declines, preventing honey bees from the risk of extinction. In Canada, total honey bee colony counts are actually rising, and have increased by 35% from 2007 to 20184. So then why the big uproar around saving the pollinators? One reason is because honey bees still face several challenges to survival, and without intensive human management it is likely that their populations would stop increasing.

​

And, most importantly, pollinators are not just honey bees! Pollinators are any organism that facilitate plant reproduction (yes, you read that right, we need pollinators to facilitate plant sex). This is done by moving pollen from the male structures of a plant to the female structures, resulting in the production of seeds and fruit. There are over 1000 pollinating species in Canada, including other bee species, flies, beetles, butterflies, moths, and birds5. Other small mammals, such as bats, can also be pollinators, however, there are no pollinating bats in Canada5.