Honeybees are of critical importance in Africa for both ecological and economic reasons. Their contribution to floral biodiversity and conservation, by virtue of their pollination of indigenous flowering plants is unknown, but certain to be considerable. Economically, honeybees are critical for the pollination of a host of commercial crop plants as well as being the source of energy and livelihood for many thousands of mostly small-scale beekeepers. In the past, honeybee pests and problems have been of limited importance in Africa. More recently, however, an increasing number of exotic diseases and pests as well as home-grown problems threaten honeybees, beekeeping and honeybee-pollination in Africa. Two problems in South Africa, the capensis problem and varroa mites, have severely curtailed beekeeping in that country and may well have impact on bees and beekeeping throughout the continent.
