New Bee Strategy Unveiled To Help Protect Pollinators

Four major North American beekeeping organizations have released the first-ever North American Bee Strategy, a coordinated, worldwide plan to protect honey bees, strengthen the viability of professional beekeeping, and safeguard food security across the U.S. and Canada.

The strategy is the result of a cross-border collaboration between the American Beekeeping Federation, the American Honey Producers Association, the Canadian Beekeepers Federation, and the Canadian Honey Council. The collaboration was convened by the Keystone Policy Center, which facilitates the Honey Bee Health Coalition.

DYK? Honey bees are responsible for pollinating more than 130 crops and contribute an estimated $18 billion in annual crop value in the U.S. and $7 billion in Canada. Beekeepers and growers continue to face rising threats from Varroa mites and other emerging pests, pesticide exposure, loss of forage, and more.

The North American Bee Strategy lays out coordinated, actionable priorities to:

• Improve monitoring, treatment, and research on pests and diseases, including Varroa and the emerging threat of Tropilaelaps.
• Strengthen honey authenticity standards and enforcement to curb fraudulent imports.
• Support applied research, shared research infrastructure, and streamlined scientific collaboration.
• Build a more unified and sustainable honey market across national borders.

Key recommendations from the strategy include:

• Varroa Management: Development of new treatments, updated thresholds, and streamlined U.S.–Canada regulatory approval for new control tools.
• Tropilaelaps Preparedness: Immediate tightening of import controls, unified federal response plans, sentinel hive monitoring networks, and early detection systems before the pest arrives in North America.
• Honey Authenticity Protections:
– Creation of “standards of identity” for honey, similar to wine appellations
– Stronger enforcement to ensure adulterated honey does not reenter the market
– Development of a continental honey authenticity database and voluntary certification system
• Applied Research Infrastructure:
– Standardized research proposal formats
– A centralized repository for results
– Best-practice research protocols to support comparability and collaboration

“This strategy was built by beekeepers, for beekeepers,” says Matt Mulica, Senior Project Director at the Keystone Policy Center and lead facilitator for the Honey Bee Health Coalition. “The industry set the priorities, the science guided the solutions, and the collaboration across organizations is historic. This is a model for how agricultural sectors can meet major challenges together.”

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According to the participating organizations, the strategy will be updated annually as science evolves and conditions change.

To download the North American Bee Strategy, click here.