A beekeeper from Punjab, Pakistan, carefully loads a box filled with tens of thousands of bees behind a truck, under a dry, smog sky.
Together, they chase 500km (about 300 miles) in increasingly desperate pursuits for flowering plants, clean air and honey production as climate change and pollution threaten the industry.
Pakistani beekeepers usually travel seasonally to avoid heat and cold freezing. Summers are spent in the northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and winters are in central Punjab.
However, weather patterns that have been unpredictable due to climate change, coupled with some of the world’s worst pollution, mean that beekeepers must move more frequently and more.
This winter was characterized by rising and dangerous smog levels that the government declared a national disaster. Research has shown that air pollution can make it difficult for honeybees to find flowers.
Meanwhile, the reduction in rainfall caused drought warnings for farmers that could not clear the choking air.
The bees of Pakistan’s 27,000 beekeepers once had a variety of leaves supplied by reliable rainfall, providing a rich source of nectar. Their honey is used in local flu treatments, with light rain falling over the sweets and given as a gift.
However, Pakistan’s honey production has fallen by 15% since 2022, according to the government’s honeybee research institute in Islamabad, which is based in the capital.
Bees are threatened worldwide by weather patterns, intensive agricultural practices, land use and pesticide changes.
Their losses threaten not only honey trade but food security in general, and according to the Food and Agriculture Organization, a third of global food production relies on bee pollination.
Pakistani honeybees once produced 22 types of honey, but fell to 11 as their flowering period became shorter. Three of the country’s four bee species are at risk.
Also, for beekeepers in countries where fuel prices have risen dramatically in recent years, moving very frequently is expensive. And beekeepers seeking better weather can face harassment if they are established in the area without the permission of the landowner.
It is provided by new technology aimed at keeping bees cool, providing hope to address the question of how extreme temperatures affect insects, if not food sources.
Former beekeeper Abdullah Chaudhry has developed a new hive with improved ventilation, based on inspiration from Turkier and other honey-producing countries that deal with rising temperatures, including Australia.
Early signs suggest that the boxes improve production by around 10%, but they are just part of the adaptive puzzle.
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