The Role of Beekeeping in the Generation of Goods and Services: The Interrelation between Environmental, Socioeconomic, and Sociocultural Utilities

Abstract

Honey bees and beekeeping belong to a large enterprise where the managers are the beekeepers, the workers are the bees, and the products generated are ecosystem goods and services, mostly intangible. Evidence for a reduction in the number of pollinating insects in the planet due to causes that are still being studied has put the spotlight on beekeeping activity and bees (wild and managed) due to their extraordinary capacity to contribute to pollination. The aim of the present work was to detect, identify, and analyze the set of environmental, socioeconomic, and sociocultural utilities (goods and services) generated by honey bees and beekeeping in order to identify possible interrelationships between them. The aim was to demonstrate that these utilities, far from being watertight, are interconnected, which will help to increase their value and highlight their positive externalities (genetic diversity and landscape, among others). This research begins with an overview of some seminal articles, published mainly in the last three years, which were searched following a review using keywords in major databases. After reading the seminal articles and others that were referenced, we analyzed the main utilities generated by honey bees and the possible relationships between them. The main contribution of our results is the determination that the generated utilities are interrelated, which could contribute to increasing their value. In addition, we found that, of the three interrelated dimensions, the socioeconomic dimension encompasses the environmental and sociocultural dimensions. The article ends by proposing future lines of research.