Close to half the species of wild and domesticated bees in the world are in danger of extinction. In response, on June 20th, the last day of spring, Fondation de France introduced the BEEFUND for the protection of endangered bees and began sponsoring a new social-media influencer, called “B”, who engages the public in her campaign to save the bees through her Instagram account, @Bee_nfluencer.
B is a very different breed of influencer. She is a bee activist who is, herself, a bee, a busy bee who travels throughout the world promoting public awareness of the importance of saving her endangered siblings and cousins. Through Instagram, B generates buzz about the plight of the bumblebee, and of many other bees, while also recruiting commercial sponsors to further the cause. Fondation de France, which has been actively addressing environmental and biodiversity issues for over 50 years, decided to join B in her crusade by establishing the BEEFUND, to raise funds and to underwrite projects on the ground.
The three basic lines of operation:
- supporting practical experiments aimed at finding agricultural practices that are more pollinator-friendly;
- restoring bee habitats, which are disappearing under the pressure of intensive single-crop farming and urban expansion;
- funding research for a better understanding of the impact of pesticides on biodiversity and the health of bee colonies.
To win support for efforts to save the bees, B has already forged partnerships with a number of sponsors, including such brand-names as Ricola (the Swiss confectionery company), Airbnb, La Poste (the French postal, banking, and cell-phone service provider), the Galeries Lafayette department-store chain, and Burt’s Bees (a U.S.-based personal-care products company).
To join B and her growing swarm of followers in the cause of saving the bees, simply click here, on @Bee_nfluencer, then click “follow”.
Of the estimated eight million animal and plant species in the world, one million are in danger of extinction in the coming decades. That is the conclusion of a report published last May by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). One creature in particular is emblematic of the species that are threatened by extinction: the bee. Europe, for example, loses 24 % of its bee colonies each year. That is a tragedy not only for biodiversity, but also for our food-production chain, in which bees constitute an indispensable link, since they pollinate 75% of the world’s agricultural crops. In fact, our entire ecosystem is dependent on the role played by bees, who, as pollinators, contribute to the reproduction of 80% of all flowering plants in the world.
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→ An influencer bee flowers social media to save its species
