When the “poison” reaches the beehives, Gildardo Urrego’s hands cannot cope with removing the dead bees. This is the second time he has suffered such a loss, and he suspects that there are pesticides behind the boom in the field in Colombia.
Hundreds of swarms have disappeared in recent years in Quindío, a department in western Colombia, where official research indicates fipronil, a pesticide that is banned in Europe and restricted in the United States and China.
Further north, in the department of Antioquia, Urrego has a honey business near passion fruit crops. In 2019, it lost 10 of its 19 swarms.
“Maybe they didn’t manage the agrochemicals properly,” says this 38-year-old beekeeper.
This time, There were four beehives that disappeared, each housing about 50,000 bees. Over the past decade, beekeepers from the United States, Canada, Uruguay, France, Russia and Australia, among others, have denounced the death of bees from pesticides.
Urrego doesn’t identify the pesticide that killed his own pesticide, but 280 kilometers away, in Quindío, Abdón Salazar continues to calculate the damage at his Apícola de Oro company, citing fipronil as the poison responsible.
“More than 80 million dead bees can be calculated in the past two years”complains this beekeeper, while three hundred beehives tremble behind him.
Other beekeepers like him have become accustomed to clearing mountains of dead insects in this area where, around the swarms, avocado and citrus plantations turn green, in one of the world’s most megadiverse countries.
Toxic neighbor
Fipronil is highly toxic to beesIts use in maize and sunflower crops – which attract these insects – was banned in 2013 by the European Union (EU), which also decided not to renew the licenses for its use on other plantations.
In Quindío the destruction of hives coincides with the expansion of monocultures, says Faber Sabogal, chairman of Asoproabejas, the organization that brings beekeepers together.
According to the local government, five multinationals bought large tracts of land in Colombia’s second smallest department between 2016 and 2019 to get involved in the avocado tree.
Exports increased from 1.7 tons in 2014 to 44.5 tons in 2019. At the beginning of 2021, the government celebrated having become the largest supplier of avocados in Europe.
According to farmers, these crops are very vulnerable to pests and require intensive disinfection. For example, bees are sprayed with fipronil as they fly through the greenery.
“They put this poison in the hive and it kills the rest completely,” Salazar says.
Veda in discussion
Asoproabejas beekeepers have videotaped dozens of deaths in various regions, mainly in western Colombia. According to them, the loss has since gone beyond their industry bees are a crucial pollinator for the reproduction of many wild plants and one third of agricultural crops.
Studies conducted by the EU have warned of the decline in the population of these animals worldwide.
In 2020, the state’s Colombian Agricultural Institute (ICA) was notified by beekeepers of 256 poisoning in beehives in Quindío alone. Ten million bees died. The ICA took samples from six affected apiaries.
Research “has shown that the fipronil molecule is one of the causes of death”, Jorge García, ICA Regional Manager, gives details to AFP.
García sent a “warning” to the ICA offices in Bogotá and the institute is currently working on a regulation for “the suspension of the molecule”. Meanwhile, fipronil is still being marketed.
Withdrawing the product as has happened in Europe “was not possible because agrochemical companies will be economically affected,” explains Salazar.
The manufacturers defend themselves. A ban on fipronil would be “a very negative situation for the production structure” of the 33 crops that use it because of its “effectiveness,” warned María Latorre, spokesman for Colombia’s agrochemical union.
While it denies that fipronil is harmful to bees, the union “welcomes” a “review” of its use “in crops that have had incidents.”
Fernando Montoya, of the Colombian Horticultural Association, states that the chemical can be replaced by “mushroom by-products”, insect traps and manual operations.
“Don’t demonize”
The ICA denies that there is a link between the expansion of avocado cultivation in Quindío and the disappearance of beehives.
“They have tried to say that it is citrus, avocado or coffee to blame, that simply no crop can be demonized,” García emphasizes.
But faced with the destruction of the swarms, Apícola de Oro, which produces 36 tons of honey per year, decided to move.
Salazar brought most of his bees from Quindío – some 1,200 beehives – to a remote area 400 kilometers away.
Although he has managed to save his business for now, he is reflecting on the rise of pesticides.
“The bee is a bio-indicator. If a bee dies, which other beneficial insects for the environment (…) die?”