NEPALESE HONEY HUNTERS FACING SOME OF THE LARGEST BEES IN THE WORLD

Nearly 90% of our world’s wild flowering plant species depend entirely, or in part, on animal pollination, but close to 35% of invertebrate pollinators face extinction globally. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) will receive all revenues from the sale of prints from British photographer Andrew Newey's highly regarded Honey Hunters of Nepal series in honour of World Bee Day on May 20.

The Gurung ethnic group visits the slopes of the Himalayas in central Nepal twice a year to harvest honey made by some of the biggest bees in the world. Protected by very little equipment, these honey hunters must painstakingly set fires to smoke away the bees, ascend dizzying cliffs with the use of wooden ladders, and poke at the tangle of hives with a bamboo stick (tango). It's a customary and revered procedure that uses methods that have been handed down through the ages. However, the practice is quickly disappearing because of climate change, which is a serious danger to Nepal's bee numbers, as well as rising commercialisation.

A close-up look at this perilous honey hunt is provided by Newey's Honey Hunters of Nepal collection, which he documented during a two-week stay among the Gurung in December 2013. Each image, which shows honey hunters teetering on ladders with their feet twisted around the rungs, is dramatic and almost unearthly. In one composition, plumes of smoke rise from the earth many feet below, and a hunter is shown clinging to his ladder while bees swarm around him. With its rocky cliff walls, emerald foliage, and colonies that resemble brilliant disks, the surrounding scenery is equally breathtaking.