African honeybees are natives to central and Southern Africa. They play a significant role in
the wellbeing of the Earths sustainability of life because they provide the crucial service of
pollination to farmers of pollinator dependent crops (SANBI, 2018). Since the honeybee is a
social insect, it visits various flowering plants to feed on pollen and nectar while transferring
pollen from one flower to another, which facilitates pollination and reproduction of flowering
plants (SANBI,2018). In a YouTube video released by eNCA SA’s honeybees under threat, a
beekeeper is interviewed and expresses that honeybees are needed to pollinate crops and
flowers around South Africa, however these natural guardians of our food chain are facing
great threats and challenges. The population of honeybees is plummeting from reasons
ranging from lack of pollen, poison, extreme weather conditions, urban development, and the
growing number of plundered hives for safety reasons by members of the community and
honey thieves (eNCA,2019). Davids (2019) warns that numerous threats to the environment
and habitat destruction have placed the global bee species under threat making them
vulnerable to extinction. In South Africa the leading reason for bee mortality is misuse of
pesticides which has caused the collapse of colonies, which is why even in the middle of
spring, bees are hard to come by in our garden.
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Earthworms recycle dead and decaying matter which improves the soil's fertility, they create
space for air and water in the soil through their actions of burrowing (Bougher, 2020). This
prevents flooding and carbon from escaping the soil in fragments. However, the numbers of
earthworms are in a steep decline and the population is especially low (Howard, 2019:1). The
earthworm is a group of species facing pressures of ecological abuse of their natural habitats
but unlike other species such as the bees, news of their decline rarely makes the news. A
scientific study found that 42 percent of the fields they surveyed were seriously deficient in
earthworms and some were missing earthworms entirely (Howard, 2019:1). Growing up,
earthworms were easy to find and spot, after rain showers, earthworms would come to the
surface, whereas in the year 2020, I had to search the whole garden/yard only to find two.
Modern farming and gardening practices are the largest contributing factors to the decline of
earthworms and many people fail to understand that worms are allies and not enemies
(Bougher,2020). The disappearance of earthworms means the fertility of the soil will
decrease significantly, yielding lower crops as well as the loss of carbon from the soil, a
factor exacerbating climate change. There has also been a decline in the song thrush
population which relies on the earthworm to feed its young (Brown, 2019:1).
Here is an example of an improper and damaging gardening practice. In the image are
branches that have been ‘topped’ (a harmful gardening practice). Topping is a pruning system
that involves the removal of the upper branches of a tree, but it leaves open wounds on trees
that eventually lead to their slow death and decline (Missouri botanical garden [sa]). In
comparison to pollarding, which is a healthier method of reducing the size of a tree and
unlike topping, pollarding allows the pruning cuts on a tree to develop a callous that will help
it heal properly. Some trees do not survive topping and usually end up rotting from the
bottom down (Missouri botanical garden [sa]). A number of trees and plants have died out
due to harmful garden practices that are intended to benefit them. If these branches grow and
produce leaves it will be a miracle (ABORISTNOW,2018).
My parents make use of pesticides and insecticides under the guise of being ‘organic
products’ in order to get rid of and prevent the growth of weeds and insects like brown
beetles that eat away at young plants and prevent them from growing. However, over time
these harmful chemicals have taken a toll on the fertility of the sand because plants no longer
grow in this area. My mother has been nursing the soil back to being fertile by creating
manure, but the changes have been slow. The heavy treatment of soil with pesticides and
insecticides can cause the death and decline of microorganisms beneficial to the soil. Killing
bacteria and fungi and degrading the soil (Aktar, Sengupta & Chowdhury 2009:3).
