Senate Committee on the use of bumble bees in Tasmania

A Senate Committee has been established to assess ‘the risks and opportunities associated with the use of the bumblebee population in Tasmania for commercial pollination purposes’. Submissions to the enquiry are being accepted until the 3rd of March. This is a complex issue, and one that I hope the committee will consider with appropriate depth. Feral bumble bees have been established in Tasmania now for 25 years. It is understandable that some farmers in Tasmania would like to take advantage of these introduced bees in the pollination of their crops. However, one of the threats associated with such a move being implemented is that should it become legal for introduced bumble bees to be actively managed in Tasmania, to the advantage of crop pollination, then it may pave the way for an eventual introduction of these bees to mainland Australia for the same purposes. An introduction of bumble bees to mainland Australia will likely have disastrous consequences for biodiversity (many of which have already been described in Tasmania after bumble bee arrival), and there is growing evidence from overseas that introduced bumble bee populations can transmit pests and diseases to both wild native bee populations, and to managed European honey bee populations. If the Senate ends up recommending that Tasmanian farmers be able to utilise introduced bumble bees, then I hope that such a decision only goes ahead with strong legislation against their future importation into mainland Australia. It is reasonable to fear though, that even with strong legal protections against future mainland importation, the establishment of bumble bee management in Tasmania would rapidly increase the chances of their illegal introduction to the mainland. As such, I feel there is no choice but to opposed the legalised active management of these bees in Tasmania, and instead call for the use only of wild feral populations of these bees that already exist around crops. You can find the call for comment on the committee here: http://www.aph.gov.au/…/Environment_and_Communic…/Bumblebees
*And a little more info here: http://www.aph.gov.au/…/Envir…/Bumblebees/Terms_of_Reference *And some informative background on the subject here:http://www.aussiebee.com.au/bumblebees-8may06.html