By CGTN’s Kevin Ozebek

Belgium, which has one of the highest bee mortality rates in all of Europe, has created a plan to resolve the problem of bee mortality. 

Experts say tackling bee mortality is crucial, since bees are needed to maintain agricultural production and food supply. The government now wants to improve veterinarian access to beekeepers, remove taxes on medicines for bees and conduct more research on why colony collapse is happening and how to stop it, since 30 percent of Belgian bee colonies die every winter.

VCG Photo

Kim Nguyen is one of Belgium’s premier scientists studying bees. His organization checks the honey to see the levels of pollutants and chemicals which are detrimental to the hive’s health.

“Most people think that bees are really important for the honey but it’s really more than just honey,” said Nguyen. 

About 85 percent of the plants, including most vegetable and fruit crops, need pollinators like bees. Thus, if the honeybee disappears, Belgium’s multibillion-dollar agriculture sector could disappear as well. 

Christine Marghem, Belgium Environment Minister./VCG photo

Therefore, Christine Marghem, Belgium's environment minister, has initiated a hive-saving plan to ask for government funding. She wants to make vets and medicine that are crucial to hive health cheaper for beekeepers, as well as pumping more money into researching the impacts of pollution, insecticides and invasive species on bee health. 

“It’s never too late to do the right thing and you’re seeing in Belgium that the mortality of the bees is greatly increased. So, we’re observing this phenomenon all over and the fight to preserve the bees is a worldwide fight,” said Marghem.

Nguyen supports Marghem’s proposal: “It’s not only environment, it’s not only the health, it’s not only the agriculture – it’s all the components together.” 

While the bee mortality rate is especially high in Belgium, the European Union is trying to fight colony collapse as well. Later this month Nguyen will speak to the European Parliament, calling for European lawmakers to help save the honeybee.