Asian honey bee: possible environmental impacts
Prepared for the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities
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About this report
The Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities commissioned a review of current scientific literature to determine what is known about the possible impacts of Asian honey bees on the Australian environment.
The report considered what we know about the Asian honey bee as a species-their overseas distribution, ecology and biology. There is also a comparison with what we already know about the European honey bee and the bumble bee, and what we can learn about the comparison regarding potential impacts of the Asian honey bee on the Australian environment.
The main conclusion of the review was that the Asian honey bee will have a negative impact on the environment in some circumstances. However, because the Asian honey bee is currently restricted to a small area of Queensland, we do not yet know where the impacts will be in the Australian environment.
One key area for future research is to determine where and when the risk of negative environmental impact from Asian honey bee is highest so that limited resources are directed to areas of maximum return.