The lives of humans and that of bees have been linked for millennia. For at least 8,000 years, humans have sought honey for applications in disciplines ranging from medicine to the culinary arts. But while humans love honey, bees provide a much more valuable service: pollination. As the world's most prolific pollinators, bees are essential to the reproduction of many plant species, which benefits other animals and plants. In fact, humans rely heavily on bees to pollinate their own food source, a service worth billions of dollars a year. Unfortunately, the honey bee population is experiencing a serious and prolonged decline, often in the form of colony collapse disorder, in which entire colonies appear abandoned overnight by adult bees. Bees are an indispensable part of modern agriculture, and failure to discern and address the many causes of bee population declines – both human-caused and natural – could have disastrous environmental consequences. and human society. Basics of Pollination Flowering plants have two main reproductive parts; the male part is called the stamen and produces pollen, while the female part is called the pistil. For pollination to occur, pollen must be transferred from the stamen to the pistil. This transfer can occasionally be caused by wind, but is most often facilitated by animals called pollinators. Pollinators do not intentionally seek to fertilize flowers; rather, they unintentionally spread pollen as they move from plant to plant in search of food. There are many different species – including birds, butterflies and bats – that act as pollinators, and many of these species are also experiencing population declines. However, bees are the most popular medium for paper...Honey bees are not native to North America. Retrieved from http://www.agriculture.purdue.edu/agcom/newscolumns/archives/OSL/1999/November/111199OSL.htmlUnited States Department of Agriculture. (2014). Agriculture Secretary announces $3 million for new program to improve pollinator health. Retrieved from http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?contentid=2014/02/0028.xml&contentidonly=trueUnited States Environmental Protection Agency. (nd). Colony collapse disorder: European bans on neonicotinoid pesticides. Retrieved from http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/about/intheworks/ccd-european-ban.html Watanabe, ME (2014). Pollinators in danger. BioScience, 64(1), 5-10. World Food Program. (2013). Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Analysis (CFSVA): Uganda. Retrieved from http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/ena/wfp256989.pdf