Our Mission
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Since prehistoric times, bees have stimulated humans’ appetites while stirring our collective imagination. Yet raising awareness about bees as biological beings and as endangered species is challenging, because most people’s knowledge is restricted to two facts: bees produce honey and bees sting.
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Honey hunter rock painting, Iberian Peninsula, ca. 7,00 BCE
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Eastern Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa virginica), a solitary bee
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These two facts also hardly reflect the reality of the diversity of bee species. 90% of the world’s 20,000 known bee species are in fact solitary (meaning females create separate nests for their eggs) and non-honey-producing. These solitary bees have largely failed to capture our attention at all. It has only been in the past 100 years or so that a very small group of people – ecologists and entomologists – have noticed and studied them as part of the biological diversity of ecosystems. |
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This is to our peril, because 75% of the world’s top 100 food crops are pollinated by insects, mainly by bees. Solitary bees are both efficient pollinators and at risk of becoming extinct, leading to increased food insecurity and social instability. This lack of knowledge about bees and the social unrest due to food insecurity bee decline will engender raise thorny issues. |
Blue Mason Bee (Osmia lignaria), powerful pollinator of fruit orchards
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The biologist Steven Jay Gould argued, “we will not fight to save what we do not love.”
How can we get people to love bees other than honeybees when they don’t know they exist?
How can we get people to love bees other than honeybees when they don’t know they exist?
This is the aspiration of Bees for Peace.
Bees for Peace aims to teach people, especially in urban, religiously and culturally diverse milieus, about wild and native bees in ways that promote awe and love of these creatures. This love and fascination become the drive for individuals to care for the bees.
By working with a variety of cultural, educational and religious communities, we also seek to create more opportunities for dialog and cooperation among different segments of society. We therefore strive to promote ecological awareness in ways that also support social cohesion, cultural diversity and democratic participation. How? Through:
By working with a variety of cultural, educational and religious communities, we also seek to create more opportunities for dialog and cooperation among different segments of society. We therefore strive to promote ecological awareness in ways that also support social cohesion, cultural diversity and democratic participation. How? Through:
