World Bee Day is celebrated on May 20 each year, and the purpose is to acknowledge the role of bees and other pollinators and protect them. These tiny bees shoulder the massive responsibility of pollinating in the ecosystem, so the plants are able to reproduce. Nearly 90 percent of the world’s flowering plants and over 70 percent of the world’s food crops depend on pollination by animals or insects. Therefore, to understand and focus on the ecosystem of bees not only contribute to conserving biodiversity, but they are key to food security.

The date of World Bee Day was chosen as it was the day the Slovenian apiarist Anton Janša was born. Janša, who was born in 1734, is known as a pioneer of modern apiculture, the knowledge about beekeeping and the way of honey harvesting that he found out had a profound impact on beekeeping technique in the future. Since 2015, the government of Slovenia proposed World Bee Day to be celebrated on May 20, which is Anton Janša’s birthday, in order to promote the concept of protecting bees and biodiversity. After three years of effort, the UN General Assembly passed the proposal in December, 2017, and proclaimed May 20 as World Bee Day. And this year is going to be the “sweet” sixth celebration.

The theme for 2023 is “Bee engaged in pollinator-friendly agricultural production”. It aims to raise global support for pollinator-friendly agricultural production, building a better environment for pollinators, and focuses on the importance of protecting bees and other pollinators, while augmenting the health for the agrifood systems. On this World Bee Day, get involved by sharing the history of World Bee Day with your friends, or inviting your family to picnic with bees in the park, “bee engaged”by taking small actions!

Bee engaged in pollinator-friendly agricultural production