Bees facing extinction - 21st May 2021

Bees play a vital role in ecosystems as key pollinators of key food crops. However, bee populations are currently in rapid decline across the world due to habitat loss, pollution and also pesticides.

The United Nations have warned that 40% of insect pollinators, in particular bees and butterflies, are at risk of global extinction.

To help counter the drop in numbers, green activists in Malaysia have founded the "My Bee Savior" association. One volunteer is software expert Ooi Leng Chye, who transfers unwanted bees to the volunteers' private land, where the insects can thrive.

Ooi Leng Chye: "So just move them in, take all the comb away, all the comb out from their original place and then move the bee as well as the comb back and place them into a box in wherever place that we want to keep the bees."

Wearing little if any special kit, Ooi is confident that the bees will only sting if they feel under attack.

With great care, he drops the bees into a basket and extracts the honeycomb. This nest removal procedure can take up to 3 hours. The insects are then relocated to a more rural destination, where the nest will be positioned in their replacement home, a makeshift wooden container.

"My Bee Savior" can cope with a maximum of 10 incidents daily. Formerly, undesirable bee nests would be disposed of by firefighters, who would typically solve the problem by incinerating the insects. Another aspect of the organisation's work is to persuade the relevant authorities to handle bees very differently. They also reassure the public about the insects and the fact that they are rarely dangerous.

Ooi Leng Chye: "I think it's because urban dwellers are more afraid of bees and not so familiar with bees. So their perception is that bees are very dangerous. So the moment they see bees, they'll immediately try to find some way to remove the bees."