Researchers have discovered a troubling decline in the Amazon rainforest's orchid bee population due to deforestation, reported news outlet Mongabay.
A study, published in the journal Biological Conservation this spring and shared by Science Direct, indicated significant drops in biodiversity following a decade of various disruptions to the natural landscape. The orchid bee, a pollinator, is necessary to the cultivation of the Brazil nut — a crucial crop sustaining the livelihoods of many in the region.
What's happening?
Data gathered in the late 1990s regarding habitat, ecosystem, and pollinator presence in the Brazilian Amazon were reviewed in a comprehensive analysis nearly 30 years later, Mongabay explained. Orchid bees "need many different types of plants for foraging, nesting, and mating" and thus are "considered an indicator species for environmental conditions."
The insights were alarming. Researchers found that the region's orchid bees are likely deprived of vital and necessary resources when residing on deforested terrain — which may have been settled for farming or development — even decades earlier: "Without healthy pollinators, the agricultural economy collapses alongside the wild ecosystems."
Why is the decline in pollinators so important?
"Pollinators are key to our human survival," remarked the study's lead author, University of Kansas professor J. Christopher Brown, to Mongabay. "If we're losing these bees, chances are we're losing a lot of other species."
As the U.S. Department of Agriculture detailed, pollinators are critical to many industries and crops, including "one out of every three bites of food [we] eat." Without a vibrant pollinator population, plants cannot reproduce as they organically should, and communities suffer.
Chronic disease, food shortages, obesity, supply chain disruptions, job loss, and financial struggles are all potential outcomes of pollinator loss — leading to "an estimated 427,000 excess deaths annually," as a 2022 study from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health concluded.
The Amazon rainforest, according to the Amazon Conservation Association, produces 20% of the oxygen we need to stay alive, provides fresh water, remains the sole growth source for more than half of cancer-treating plants, and overall "stabilizes our planet's climate."
What's being done about deforestation?
In the political realm, there are hopeful indications of progress. Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has "pledge[d] to eliminate deforestation in the Amazon by 2030," Reuters reported last year.
For individuals, World Wildlife Fund suggested three simple solutions to support the region: Do your research so you can spread awareness, consider the practices used to produce the food and consumer products you buy (and choose FSC-labeled items), and attempt to reduce your contribution to worldwide toxic pollution by making sustainable, cost-saving energy swaps.
Plus, protect pollinators right in your own yard with a rewilding project or native plant garden.
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