On August 09, 2022, Beekeepers Tobias Marbou and Conti Marbou were presented a check for $2,000 from the Save the Bees, Inc. to help the farm offset some of the higher costs related to the COVID Pandemic, supply chain disruptions and rising fuel costs.
The Tobias family have been the primary beekeepers of Palau for over 75 years. “That money goes to ensuring that they can maintain the biodiversity of bees. Bees are essential to agriculture and without them, the world would experience extreme food insecurity,” said Jay Adolphe, President and Founder of Save the Bees, Inc. “You know, about one-third of the food eaten by Americans comes from crops pollinated by honeybees, including apples, melons, cranberries, pumpkins, squash, broccoli, and almonds.”
During the COVID-19 emergency, well-known properties of honey including antiviral agents and immune enhancers resulted in an increase in honey consumption. However, Honeybees have been struggling in recent years from the widespread use of harmful chemicals, habitat loss and climate change. Also, bee and beehive transportation limitations threaten to hit food production by affecting the pollinator service, and this is particularly true in large, food-exporting countries like the USA and China where due to the few numbers of local bees, beekeepers import them by other countries and convey by truck hives for thousands of kilometers to pollinate crops.
To make matters worse, temperature rises in recent years, combined with severe alterations caused to the environment, are disturbing the bees’ ecosystem which is impacting the pollination process.
Save the Bees, Inc., is based in San Antonio, Texas. The donation was presented by Eric Adolphe during his visit to establish a cyber-security program in Palau, ahead of the activation of the undersea cable. “They deserved (the donation). They work hard, and the economy presents a tough challenge,” Eric Adolphe said, adding that he hopes that the contribution also will inspire people in Palau to, one day, keep bees of their own now, or even see it as a possible career path.