Commemorating World Bee Day, IPB University Experts Mention the Threatened Sustainability of Bees
Chairman of the Indonesian Entomology Association (PEI) who is also a lecturer at IPB University from the Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, Prof Dadang explained that the preservation of bees is currently increasingly threatened. The loss of bees as pollinators will disrupt the ecosystem order.
"The decline in bee populations in various parts of the world is very worrying, because their role as pollinators is very important, both in agriculture, forest conservation, and in various other ecosystems," said Prof Dadang during the Pollinator Dialogue Forum, recently.
Based on the PEI report, many forest bee species (Apis dorsata) have disappeared from Sumatra and Kalimantan. The destruction of native bee habitats due to the agricultural sector is said to be the main factor in this incident. Bee sustainability is also increasingly threatened by extreme climate change.
"In the agricultural sector, the decline in the number of bees will have an impact on the decline in world food production. Bees are the most productive and diverse pollinators in much of the world, with more than 20,000 species recorded," he continued.
Habitat restoration efforts for pollinators are part of regenerative agriculture, which he said needs to be promoted. Regenerative agriculture approaches have the potential to help repopulate surrounding ecosystems with beneficial insects, mammals and birds.
"Conservation efforts for the existence of bees and pollinators are important to do because bees play an important role in food security and health," said the IPB University lecturer.
Prof Damayanti Buchori, who is also an IPB University lecturer from the Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, said PEI as an association in the field of entomology has the main responsibility to increase public awareness of bees.
"Bees seem small, but they have a tremendous impact on life, so it takes cooperation between the central government, local governments, academics, the private sector, and the community to jointly maintain bee habitat by maintaining the existence of sialang trees and replanting sialang trees," he explained.
Therefore, he continued, PEI took the initiative to hold a Pollinator Forum Dialogue with the theme 'The Important Role of Pollinators and Bees for Regenerative Agriculture'.
"This forum is a discussion forum for academics, policy makers, farmers, breeders and the private sector to jointly build a discourse on bees and their conservation in order to find solutions to overcome beekeeping problems in Indonesia," he said.
The forum was organized by PEI in collaboration with IPB University, Padjadjaran University, Indonesian Beekeeping Association and Indonesia Pollinator Initiative supported by Syngenta. The forum was held in Bandung, West Java, to commemorate World Bee Day. (MW/Rz) (IAAS/ARD)
