WUR Bee Research Programs: Supporting Global Sustainability, Peace, and Development

Introduction to WUR's Bee Research Programs

Wageningen University & Research (WUR) has established several dedicated programs focused on bees and their ecological importance. The cornerstone of these initiatives is Bees@WUR, which works on a wide range of bee-related issues through research, information provision, and consultancy. This program places significant emphasis on bee health and the concerning issue of bee mortality, addressing crucial factors affecting bee populations worldwide. The research conducted at WUR investigates how bees live in environments where they are constantly exposed to factors that affect their health, including diseases, pesticides, and food availability. What makes WUR's approach distinctive is its focus on understanding how these various factors interact, conducting experimental research to uncover the mechanisms behind these complex relationships. The university's independent position in research, governed by strict policies and clearly defined agreements, ensures that its findings are credible and unbiased.

The Ecological and Economic Significance of Bees

The importance of bees extends far beyond honey production, playing a vital role in global food security and biodiversity. With the ongoing decline in insect pollinators, there are potentially far-reaching impacts on food production and availability. Research conducted by Gallai et al. indicates that with the current decline in pollinators, the expected production of fruits, vegetables, and luxury products like coffee and tea will fall below current consumption levels. Bees represent the most important group of pollinators for both agricultural crops and wild plants, with approximately 70% of the main crops for human consumption depending on their pollination services. The total economic value of pollination as an ecosystem service was estimated at 152 billion euros in 2005, equivalent to 9% of the value of world agricultural production for human consumption. This economic contribution highlights why protecting bee populations is not merely an environmental concern but also an economic imperative.

Key WUR Bee Research Initiatives

One significant initiative is the BETTER-B project, a four-year program aimed at improving the resilience of beekeeping to various abiotic stressors such as climate change, habitat loss, and exposure to hazardous chemicals. This project recognizes that honey bee colonies are often poorly adapted to these stresses, partly due to modern beekeeping practices. The key philosophy behind BETTER-B is harnessing nature's power to restore harmony and balance within honey bee colonies and between colonies and their environment, both of which have been disturbed by human activities. The project looks to "Darwinian colonies" – abandoned and feral colonies that have survived in the wild – for inspiration, while acknowledging that such colonies typically lack characteristics important in modern beekeeping. Rather than abandoning modern practices, BETTER-B seeks to understand natural processes and mechanisms and adapt contemporary beekeeping accordingly, using the benefits of advanced technologies when appropriate.

Implementing Solutions for Bee Health

The implementation of new approaches in apicultural management involves close collaboration with relevant stakeholders. The restoration of harmony and balance must occur at three levels: the environment, the honey bee, and beekeeping practices. Recently, WUR has also been involved in other bee-related initiatives that aim to optimize bee health and pollination services. These projects focus on developing science-based innovations to benefit both bee populations and the farmers who depend on their pollination services. Additionally, professional beekeeping projects like SIB2023-012 demonstrate WUR's commitment to enhancing the practical aspects of beekeeping and making it more sustainable and efficient. These efforts collectively aim to create more resilient bee systems that can withstand environmental challenges while continuing to provide essential ecosystem services.

Aligning Bee Research with Sustainable Development Goals

WUR is strongly committed to contributing to the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through its sustainable operations and premises, but most importantly through its research and education programs. The university has built a strong track record in sustainability over many years, taking an interdisciplinary, science-based approach to solving major global challenges defined by the SDGs. This commitment extends to bee-related research, which contributes significantly to multiple SDGs. Each project within WUR's global sustainability program must indicate its contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, ensuring that research efforts align with global priorities for sustainable development. Rector Magnificus Carolien Kroeze emphasizes that WUR is strongly committed to these goals through its operations and research programs.

How Bee Research Supports Multiple SDGs

Bee research and conservation initiatives at WUR potentially contribute to 15 of the 17 SDGs and a minimum of 30 SDG targets. The diversity of wild and managed bees has critical ecological, economic, and social importance that extends beyond just crop pollination. In fact, bee research supports several key SDGs, including Zero Hunger (SDG 2), as bee pollination plays a pivotal role in food production. Bee pollination increases crop yield and enhances the nutritional value of fruits, vegetables, and seeds, directly contributing to food security goals. It also supports Good Health and Well-being (SDG 3) through bee products that provide safe and affordable medicinal sources used in both traditional and modern medicine. Additionally, bee pollination contributes to the growth and diversity of plants important for improved air quality.

Economic and Social Benefits of Bee Research

Beyond environmental impacts, bee research also supports economic SDGs. Keeping bees offers economic diversity as an income source, helping build resilient livelihoods for poor and vulnerable peoples (SDG 1) while potentially providing equal access to economic and natural resources for both men and women. Vocational training for beekeeping can enhance equal opportunities for employment, training, and entrepreneurship among men, women, and indigenous people with traditional knowledge (SDG 4). Beekeeping also promotes gender equality (SDG 5) by enhancing opportunities for women's involvement in economic, social, and political decision-making processes, even in communities that traditionally deprive women of property rights. Furthermore, bee research contributes to clean water and sanitation (SDG 6) as bee pollination helps with the growth and diversity in water-related ecosystems, and affordable clean energy (SDG 7) by improving production for oilseed crops used as biofuel.

WUR's Global Impact and Support for Countries

WUR's global sustainability initiatives have been active in 28 countries with more than 250 people obtaining their PhD degrees within the program. The collaboration with local partners is an essential element of these programs, aimed at developing local capacity and creating societal impact. This global approach is central to WUR's identity, as reflected in its motto: "To explore the potential of nature to improve the quality of life". As a public research university specializing in life sciences with a focus on agriculture, technical and engineering subjects, WUR has positioned itself as a globally important center for life sciences and agricultural research. The university consistently ranks highly in international assessments, particularly in agriculture, forestry, and environmental science fields.

Supporting Agricultural Development in Conflict Zones

WUR's commitment to supporting countries experiencing challenges, particularly those in conflict, is evident through specific initiatives like ClimAgri4Ukraine. This program aims to develop innovative climatic and socio-economic measurement and analysis models to quantify the resilience of Ukrainian agriculture and predict future farming conditions. It also explores transformative governance arrangements for sustainable and resilient food consumption and production, while supporting the Ukrainian research and policy agenda with recommendations for climate-smart agriculture. In conflict zones, agricultural support goes beyond immediate economic benefits to address broader challenges like environmental degradation. For example, WUR's research has found that restoring Ukrainian agricultural soils after the war will cost at least 20 billion dollars, highlighting the extensive damage to productive land.

Ukraine's Beekeeping Industry: Current Challenges

Ukraine is one of the largest beekeeping countries in the world and the largest European producer of honey. Before the full-scale invasion, there were over 400 thousand beekeepers with 3.5 million bee colonies in the country. The average gross production of honey reached 50-55 thousand tons per year, with production estimated at 70 thousand tons in favorable years. Ukraine produced a comparable amount of honey to the United States, with beekeeping being both a commercial enterprise and a popular hobby for many Ukrainians. Ukraine exported 81,000 tonnes of honey in 2020 and 58,000 tonnes in 2021, primarily to countries like Poland, Germany, Belgium, France, and the Czech Republic.

Impact of War on Ukrainian Beekeepers

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has devastated the country's beekeeping sector. Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, dozens of apiaries and beehives are being destroyed every week, with beekeepers receiving insufficient financial support from the government. Many beekeepers who lived in poverty before the war now face even more dire circumstances as they cannot sell their honey due to disrupted markets and logistics. The war has forced tens of thousands of beekeepers to abandon their homes and cut others off from their bee yards, while also disrupting markets, pollination services, honey bee research, and the planting of nectar-bearing crops. Those bees that do survive have difficulty foraging for food, as many plants and flowers have been decimated, including sunflower crops, which are another of Ukraine's major exports.

Personal Stories of Affected Beekeepers

The human cost of the war is evident in individual stories of beekeepers like Iryna Vasylieva from the town of Svatove in the Luhansk Region, who had expanded her apiary to 50 hives and begun developing agrotourism with a grant from the United Nations Development Program before the invasion. When fields around her town were mined and bombardment began after February 24, she was forced to leave for Denmark. Similarly, Denys Soldatov, vice president of the Union of Beekeepers of Ukraine, lost his beehives, equipment, laboratory, and shops due to the war but continues to help as a volunteer, organizing honey sales with donations going to the Ukrainian military. These personal accounts highlight how the war has transformed beekeepers from productive agricultural workers into displaced persons struggling for survival.

The Importance of Supporting Ukrainian Beekeepers

Supporting Ukrainian beekeepers is crucial not only for their immediate survival but also for broader food security concerns. As one of the leading suppliers of honey in the region, Ukraine's beekeeping industry plays a significant role in global food systems. The destruction of this industry impacts the country's long-term food security and economy. Organizations like Greater Good Charities have teamed up with the Brotherhood of Ukrainian Beekeepers to provide critical resources to beekeepers, including bee pollen substitute, sugar, queen bees, and hives to help Ukrainian beekeepers replenish the colonies that have been destroyed. These efforts also include distribution of vaccines and cleaning products to protect new colonies from disease and parasites.

Authentic Ukrainian Honey vs. Fake Honey

The issue of fake honey in global markets makes supporting authentic Ukrainian producers even more important. Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has launched initiatives like the "Minefields Honey" project to draw global attention to the agricultural challenges the country faces while promoting authentic Ukrainian honey. Projects like these aim to become powerful communication tools to attract more international partners, donors, and resources to support Ukraine. Supporting Ukrainian beekeepers not only provides them with economic relief but also helps combat the proliferation of adulterated honey products in global markets, ensuring consumers receive genuine, high-quality honey. European beekeeping associations have issued calls to consumers to put an end to fake honey together, emphasizing the importance of supporting authentic producers.

Economic Support as a Path to Peace

The relationship between poverty and conflict is well-established, with research showing that low per capita income and slow economic growth drastically increase the chances that a country will experience violence. Poverty can lower resilience to conflict by weakening government institutions, stripping capacity for public goods provision, and limiting the projection of power and authority. At the individual and community level, poverty compounds vulnerability to violence by lowering the opportunity cost of mobilizing for conflict. High rates of unemployment and inequality, combined with low levels of education and development, are thought to soften the ground for recruitment and provide motives to fight.

Breaking the Cycle of Poverty and Conflict

Once conflict breaks out, it hits the poor the hardest: social welfare is depleted as goods and services are diverted to the war effort; rural infrastructure is destroyed in contested territory; and justice and security provision retracts into urban areas and elite enclaves. Conflict causes and compounds poverty by first depleting labor and human capital, then destroying productive assets and financial capital, and finally, eroding the social capital of trust and cooperation upon which strong political and economic systems depend. This creates what some researchers call a "conflict trap," where the strongest predictor of civil war onset is whether a country has recently experienced civil war.

Supporting Beekeepers for Peace and Stability

Supporting beekeepers in conflict zones like Ukraine can help break this cycle. By providing economic opportunities and relief, such support can reduce the likelihood of further conflict and instability. The effects of conflict go far beyond physical violence, transforming economies, social networks, and household support systems far from the frontlines. Before the current conflict in Ukraine, communities relied on systems of support and solidarity, but these have been largely destroyed by the war. As one farmer in South Sudan explained: "Before, we used to help each other.... The community used to sit together, see who is very poor, and help that person. Now, for this life, our current life, it is much harder than before".

Initiatives Supporting Ukrainian Beekeepers

Several initiatives have been launched to support Ukrainian beekeepers and promote peace through economic development. The "Help on Bee Wings" program, designed to support Ukrainian beekeepers during the war, provides assistance to beekeepers in restoration of beekeeping farms and apiaries destroyed or lost due to the war. It also provides humanitarian support to beekeepers' families – women, children, and elderly parents who have been temporarily resettled. The USAID Economic Resilience Activity has been helping the Hadiach Agricultural School train future beekeepers in modern methods of beekeeping since 2019, providing new laboratories, a training apiary, and a modern honey processing station. These initiatives not only provide immediate relief but also build capacity for future recovery.

Innovative Approaches to Recovery

Innovative approaches to recovery include projects like the cooperative formed by displaced beekeepers from Luhansk who relocated to the Carpathian Mountains. With the help of local beekeepers and support from organizations like the Peace Dividend Initiative, these displaced beekeepers have been able to restart their businesses in a safer environment. This project aims to increase honey production levels and support efforts to export honey to European markets, laying the groundwork for long-term social cohesion in post-war Ukraine. As Ivan Saschuk, one of the Carpathian beekeepers involved in the cooperative, notes: "We share our knowledge with beekeepers from the east, and they teach us 'the Luhansk way'. We all cooperate together. For all of us, beekeeping isn't just a profession, it's a way of life".

Conclusion: The Path Forward

Supporting Ukrainian beekeepers represents more than just economic aid; it is an investment in peace and stability. Economic incentives are a pivotal force in promoting global stability, with foreign aid serving as a potent economic instrument in the pursuit of peace. By providing resources for beekeepers to rebuild their livelihoods, international organizations, universities like WUR, and individual consumers can help break the cycle of poverty and conflict. Successful locally-owned peace-building initiatives can have a profound impact on communities' chances for a more stable future. As the accounts of individuals affected by conflict demonstrate, there is an urgent need to respond to conflict, address its impacts, and work with communities to resolve and prevent it. Through concerted action in areas such as integrating peace programming, supporting relationship-building, and reinforcing systems for effective conflict management, the international community can help communities build lasting peace.