Invisible links, or in Spanish; Vínculos invisibles, is the name of the upcoming exhibition about pollinators and biodiversity in which I will be participating. Do they depend on us or do we depend on them?
About 316 species of plants are cultivated in Mexico. Aproximately 286 of the species are related to the food we eat. Almost 90 percent depend on animal-mediated pollination. Examples of the plants that are linked to our food are: beans, chili, tomato, pumpkin, tomato, plum, mango, apple, guava, coffee, cocoa, vanilla and almonds.
In fact, it is estimated that 80 to 90 percent of all cultivated fruits require pollination that is predominatly mediated by animals, highlighting the role of many insect species.
However, the number of pollinators is decreasing due to problems such as the alteration and loss of their environment, diseases, climate changes and other threats. Therefore, it is necessary to disseminate the importance of pollinators in our daily life, to promote the respect and the care towards them, proposing actions and initiatives that everyone can apply in their daily lives.
One of them, which involves all the members of society, is to generate collective awareness and a culture around the importance in caring and protecting the pollinators.
Society must be aware of the fact that our daily practices and habits affect the ecological balance between pollinators, biodiversity and the consumption of products that derive from this process.
The temporary exhibition “Invisible links, pollinators and biodiversity”, aims to present the biological and evolutionary foundations of pollinators, their relationship with the maintenance of biodiversity and importance in our diet, emphasizing a very identifiable case for anyone: the bees.
Throughout the exhibition, four main messages are handled:
- Pollination is carried out by many different types of pollinators.
- Pollination is a transcendental process for the maintenance of biodiversity.
- One third of our diet depends on the pollination process
- There is a global crisis related to the continuity of pollinators
Throughout four sections and more than twenty interactive exhibitions, artistic installations and a photographic exhibition, the visitor will be able to know, interact and discover the different biological aspects, the processes in which they participate and the benefits that pollinators give us.
Visit the exhibition 4 June to 14 September 2019 at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) Science Museum UNIVERSUM. My contribution to this exhibition is models of: bats, bees, butterflies, moths, hummingbirds, mouse, parrot, lemur, lizard and more.
Vínculos invisibles, invitation in Spanish, museum website.
Davit Nava 