Pollinators Unknown: People's Perception of Native Bees in an Agrarian District of West Bengal, India, and Its Implication in Conservation

Native bees are important pollinators of cultivated and wild plants. Although much importance has been accorded them in many countries of the world, India has largely ignored the role of these important ecosystem service providers for too long. The consequence is public apathy toward these beneficial insects. This study has attempted to find out the general "bee awareness'' of people living in agrarian societies in a socioeconomically underdeveloped Indian district through picture-based questionnaire surveys and has also attempted to determine the effectiveness of information divulgation in changing people's perception toward native bees. Opinion of the people on honeybee health in this district has also been explored. It has been found that traditional knowledge of bees is largely restricted to the honey-producing species of the genus Apis, and even though other native species are frequently encountered by the people, there is a substantial lack of awareness about their true nature and importance. However, the study suggests that through right training, this situation may favorably be altered. Multiple regression analysis of socioeconomic factors determining bee knowledge of respondents revealed that women were > 4 times better at identifying native bees than men, both with or without given information, and the higher the level of education the better people were at identifying native bees. People considered pesticides and their irregular application to be the major killers of honeybees. This study generates hope for involvement of local people in native as well as honeybee conservation and management through proper awareness campaigns and right education.