DOC’s honey money - but not all is sweet
The Department of Conservation is cashing in on the ma¯nuka honey goldrush, despite its scientists’ concerns the honeybee explosion could threaten native bees and birds.
The department says it is taking a conservative approach to granting concessions for beekeepers to place hives on conservation land, following a 2015 report highlighting the risk honeybees could out-compete native bees.
However, another 6640 hives have been approved since that report, and internal documents reveal DOC was relying on honey money to boost its coffers.
DOC scientist Catherine Beard’s 2015 risk analysis found hive numbers on conservation land ballooned, from 2036 in 1996 to 14,850 in July 2015.
Beard found honeybees collect nectar and pollen from at least 224 indigenous plant species and have a competitive advantage over native bees, as they can forage for longer and broadcast food locations to others in the hive.
Honeybees also often preferred introduced plants, so could spread weeds, and could take nectar from plants such as kakabeak, without pollinating them, making them less attractive to birdpollinators such as tui, Beard’s report found.
‘‘There is also a risk that, for some plants, pollination disruption will result in negative population growth and, ultimately, extinction.’’
Conservation Department director of planning, permissions and land, Marie Long, acknowledged beekeeping ‘‘may have a negative impact on native ecosystems and native species’’.
Following Beard’s report, the department took a conservative approach to approving new hives, setting up a tender process to ‘‘identify opportunities for growing beekeeping activity on public conservation land in appropriate places,’’ Long said.
That process approved 4106 new hives across 109 sites nationwide.
However, internal documents show the department was banking on that tender revenue to help ease its ‘‘significant financial constraint’’. A 2016/17 planning document listed beehive concession fees as one of five ‘‘top pick, two star’’ revenue growth opportunities, with the potential to bring in an extra
$366,000-$583,000.
In the past two years, DOC has declined just two beehive concession applications.
Native bee expert Barry Donovan said more research was needed to assess the risk of honeybees to native bees, which were uniquely evolved to pollinate native plants.
‘‘If any organism at all becomes extinct, it’s an unstitching of the ecological web that supports all of us.
‘‘To lose one bee species would be a tragedy from a human point of view. So we do need to know whether there is an impact – from a purely selfish, survivalof-the-human-species view.’’
❚ Native bees under threat, C4