Korean Beekeeping on Brink of Collapse as 10 Billion Honeybees Disappear

이재은 기자 / 기사승인 : 2022-05-12 14:35:49
  • -
  • +
  • 인쇄
Researchers are wary of collateral damage to fruit and vegetable growers and a possible food crisis
▲An apiary in Yanggu County, Gangwon Province, South Korea. Out of 120 hive boxes, only 20 boxes made it to this year. The remaining honeybees are mostly dying due to malnutrition. ©Newstree


"We're on the edge of a cliff; honeybees could go extinct anytime soon."

Mr Lee Young-ki, a 69-year-old beekeeper in Yanggu County, Gangwon Province in South Korea, let out a deep sigh as he opened up an empty hive box. Since this January, at the head of Haenam County in South Jeolla Province, reports have been made by apiaries all across the country where honeybees went missing all at once. Mr Lee’s apiary was no exception. Out of 120 hive boxes, only 20 boxes managed to survive. Not only that, the remaining honeybees were mostly dying on the floor, unable to fly.

According to a joint public-private investigation carried out by the Rural Development Administration(RDA), Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency(QIA), local governments and Korea Beekeeping Association, honeybees from 416,409 hive boxes nationwide disappeared between October 2021 to March 2022. Assuming that each hive box has a population of 25,000 honeybees, the total number of missing bees amount to 10 billion.

Since 1969, Mr Lee has been keeping bees for more than half a century, and his conclusion to the mass-disappearance drawn from years of experience as well as independent research is the climate crisis. Various causes have been rasied so far, such as disease·insect pest or pesticide abuse, but what it all comes down to in Mr Lee’s view is unchanging. "In 2004, I went down to Chungchung Province to feed my honeybees through what became known as mobile beekeeping, which is very common in Korea. There, false acacia blossoms filled the area. Still my bees starved to death, all because of the climate crisis that had taken the honey away from the flowers," he said.

False acacia is the major source of honey in Korea on which more than 60% of the apiaries rely. Thanks to root-nodule bacteria, false acacia trees thrive even under poor natural conditions. Root-nodule bacteria are a type of nitrogen-fixing bacteria which provides nitrogen in return for protein supplied by the false acacia tree, functioning as a natural fertiliser. Despite this tenacity, however, false acacia is helpless in the face of global warming. As the atmosphere heats up at a faster rate than that of land, physiological stress has been inflicted to false acacia trees, thereby forcing them to choose survival before reproduction and to halt nectar secretion.

"There have been attempts to tackle the problem with the lack of honey by developing artificial food for bees made from sugar, but it does not hold sufficient nutrients enough to provide proper immune system for them. Decades of malnutrition and stress have weakened bee colonies, and frequent abnormal weather events this year led to their collapse," he said. "If we don’t do something about the climate crisis, there is no future for the apiculture industry." he added.

Experts say the same. According to Dr Choi Yong-soo at the RDA, the southern part of the Korean peninsula saw an unusual surge in temperature and low humidity during the wet season between July and August 2021. This created perfect condition for parasitic bee mites to prosper, which made honeybees exposed to a higher level of insecticides. On top of that, the region is becoming increasingly subtropical, giving room for the Asian yellow-legged hornet, an exotic species and a natural enemy of honeybees, to broaden the area of action.

Extreme weather events in two consecutive years from 2020 and 2021 dealt a final blow to the bee communities where low temperature drop, strong wind, and heavy rain took place during flowering seasons. The bees were already at their limit as they had suffered from fatigue and malnutrition for decades. To make matters worse, winter was warm without flowers while spring was cold with flowers blossoming. It confused the honeybees and made immature bees come out to collect honey during winter where there were no flowers. When spring came round, temperature plummeted and the bees did not manage to return and died away from home.

Wildfires gaining momentum in frequency and intensity owing to the climate crisis have also been pointed out. The eastern coastal areas, where Korea’s major honey plants habitats are located including Hapcheon, Goryeong and Uljin, were ravaged by massive wildfires last March. Up to this April, 393 cases of wildfires have been reported, doubling the number of 196 cases over the same period in 2021. This is partly because of a significant drop in spring rainfall. At the end of 2021 in the northern hemisphere, the precipitation volume was 85.3% below average.

▲Kim Young-bok, President of the Council of Farmers’ Organizations in Yanggu County, owns 23,000㎡ of watermelon greenhouses. "We have 20,000 watermelons in total, and there is no way we could pollinate all of them in time other than using honeybees." he said. ©Newstree


As the honeybees are taken away by the climate crisis, its collateral damage is permeating the entire farming industry, especially those in need of honeybees for the crops' pollination. "When growing watermelons, all that matters is whether the watermelons are getting pollinated or not. In my cooperative farming unit, 3 farming families threw out 5,000 watermelons because they did not manage to pollinate them. It cost us 60 to 70 million won (47,000 to 55,000 USD)," said Kim Young-bok, President of the Council of Farmers' Organizations in Yanggu County. "During midday, the temperature in the greenhouse goes up to 40℃. So even if we pollinate the watermelons with our own hands, that can happen only in the morning when the Sun is still weak. We have 20,000 watermelons in total, and there is no way we could pollinate all of them in time other than using honeybees." he added.

Fruit farmers are finding it difficult to borrow hive boxes from beekeepers because of the shortage of supply as well as the price surge. "10 out of 7 fruit farmers in Korea rely on bee pollination. In some areas, the price of borrowing hive boxes went up by 15 to 20%," said Dr Lee Gyung-yong at the RDA. "Rather than pollinating with human hands, bee pollination is more likely to attain greater performance as its fruit setting rate is higher and the chance of malformed fruit growing is lower. It is therefore highly possible that the lack of honeybees is going to negatively affect farm household income." he added.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) predicts that since 71 out of 100 major food crops which takes up 90% of the total food production worldwide are pollinated by honeybees, not only does the extinction of bees affect the food on our tables, but it is also going to have a knock-on effect on the ecosystem as a whole.

"As flowers continue to generate less honey, due to which the population of honeybees falters, I'm closing down my apiary which I've been in for more than 50 years. Instead, I'm moving on to growing the paprika pepper which is a spore plant that grows through asexual reproduction which means it does not take honeybees to proliferate," said Mr Lee, the beekeeper.

Mr Lee pointed out that mobile beekeeping that is rampant in Korea has to go because it forces honeybees to travel long distances which adds further pressure to the species. It also makes them prone to insect pests because the bees transmit diseases and pests across the country as they move around. "Until the climate crisis is settled, which is the root cause to this whole situation, local governments have to secure honey plants to delay the extinction of honeybees and to prevent upcoming potential food crisis." he said.


[Korean Ver.] 줄어든 '꿀' 굶주리는 '꿀벌'···벼랑끝 양봉농가 "이대로 가면..."
*The article is published as part of the global journalism collaboration Covering Climate Now(CCNow). The content may be republished under the sharing requirements & guidelines provided by CCNow.

Copyright @ NEWSTREE All rights reserved.

뉴스트리 SNS

  • 뉴스트리 네이버 블로그
  • 뉴스트리 네이버 포스트
  • 뉴스트리 유튜브
  • 뉴스트리 페이스북
  • 뉴스트리 인스타그램
  • 뉴스트리 트위터

핫이슈

+

Video

+

ESG

+

정부 '위약금 면제' 수용한 SKT..."정보보호에 7000억 투자" 결정

SK텔레콤이 해킹 사고로 번호이동한 가입자에 대해 위약금을 면제해야 한다는 정부의 요청을 수용하기로 결정했다.SKT는 침해사고 발생전인 4월 18일 기

우리은행 'G.우.주 프로젝트' 시행...경기도 보호아동 위해 6억 지원

우리은행이 'G.우.주 프로젝트'를 통해 보호아동을 위해 4년간 매년 1억5000만원을 지원한다.우리은행은 경기주택도시공사(GH), 한국아동청소년그룹홈협

이재명 정부의 ESG 정책과 기업의 대응전략은...KEMI, 17일 세미나

한국ESG경영개발원(KEMI)이 오는 17일 서울 여의도 FKI타워 파인홀에서 '이재명 정부의 ESG 정책과 기업의 대응 전략'을 주제로 ESG 세미나를 개최한다고 3일

방시혁 하이브 의장 서울대 문화관 재건축에 50억 기부

방시혁 하이브 의장이 모교인 서울대학교에 기부한 50억원이 서울대 문화관 재건축에 사용된다.서울대는 3일 오후 6시 서울 관악구 서울대 문화관 중강

KCC '2025 ESG 보고서' 발간...온실가스 '스코프3'까지 확장

KCC가 ESG경영 성과와 지속가능 전략을 담은 '2025 지속가능성보고서'를 발간했다고 3일 밝혔다.올해 11번째로 발간되는 이번 보고서는 지속가능경영보고

"중대재해는 기업 ESG평가의 핵심리스크...등급 차감요소로 작용"

'중대재해'가 기업의 가치와 ESG 평가에 결정적인 영향을 미칠 것이라는 분석이 나왔다.ESG 평가 및 투자자문기관 서스틴베스트가 3일 발간한 '중대재해

기후/환경

+

바닐라·유제품 생산량도 감소?...기후변화로 생산량 감소세

바닐라와 유제품 등 전세계적으로 널리 사용되고 있는 식품과 향신료가 기후변화에 의해 생산량이 점점 줄어들고 있다는 분석이 나왔다.샬럿 와테인

美 캘리포니아 반년만에 또 '대형산불'...폭염과 강풍에 불길 확산

올 1월 로스앤젤레스(LA) 대형산불로 몸살을 앓은 미국 캘리포니아주에서 또다시 대형산불이 발생했다.3일(현지시간) 캘리포니아산림소방국(Cal Fire)에

"더이상 못 참겠다"…환경부, 계양산 러브버그 직접 방제

인천 계양산에 떼로 나타났던 '러브버그'(붉은등우단털파리)로 인해 주민들의 불편이 커지자, 환경부가 결국 직접 방제에 나섰다.최근 계양산 정상을

때이른 폭염에 '가장 더운 6월'...1년만에 평균기온 또 갈아치웠다

올 6월 우리나라 전국 평균기온이 역대 최고를 기록하면서 '역대 가장 더웠던 6월'로 기록됐다.4일 기상청이 발표한 2025년 6월 기후특성에 따르면 6월 전

'불지옥'으로 변한 유럽...독일과 그리스 산불 계속 확산

역대급 폭염이 덮친 유럽에서 유럽으로 인한 산불이 곳곳에서 발생하면서 가득이나 뜨거운 대기를 더 뜨겁게 달구고 있다. 3일(현지시간) dpa통신 등에

[주말날씨] 낮 최고 36℃ '찜통더위'...밤에도 28℃ '열대야'

이번 주말도 낮밤을 가리지 않고 찜통더위가 이어지겠다. 중부지방은 대체로 흐리고 남부지방과 제주도는 가끔 구름많겠다.전국에 폭염특보가 발효된

에너지

+

순환경제

+

오피니언

+