Articles
Written by Kawin Jiaranaisakul
Every year on May 20, World Bee Day is observed to raise awareness about the importance of bees and other pollinators, highlighting the major role they play in protecting nature, supporting agriculture, and maintaining food production around the world. The date was not chosen randomly. It was chosen to honor Anton Janša, a pioneer of modern apiculture who was born on this day, and it has been officially celebrated since 2018 following a proposal by the Government of Slovenia to the UN General Assembly.
What makes this day particularly urgent is the reality behind it. Without bees, food production could decrease significantly, and bees also help maintain forests, gardens, and natural ecosystems, making them essential for both humans and wildlife. Today, bees, pollinators, and many other insects are declining in abundance. This year’s theme centered on protecting pollinators and promoting sustainable environmental practices, a message that feels harder to ignore with every passing season.
Just two days after World Bee Day, the conversation widened. The International Day for Biological Diversity is observed annually on May 22 and was proclaimed by the United Nations to raise awareness of the value of life on Earth. The theme for 2026 was “Acting Locally for Global Impact,” and it landed with real weight. The theme served as a reminder that biodiversity recovery does not happen in conference rooms or policy documents alone. It happens in wetlands, forests, rivers, grasslands, and communities around the world, through the daily actions of people committed to protecting species and restoring ecosystems.
Biodiversity is the foundation of healthy ecosystems, which in turn support our food, water, medicine, and climate stability. Yet species extinction rates are now tens to hundreds of times higher than in the past 10 million years, largely due to human activities. That is not a comfortable statistic to sit with, and it is exactly the kind of fact this day exists to put in front of people.
May 23 quietly does double duty. It is both World Turtle Day and Taxonomy Recognition Day, and the two share more common ground than you might expect.
Taxonomy Recognition Day was created to coincide with the birthday of Carl Linnaeus, the renowned “father of taxonomy,” and was first celebrated on May 23, 2024, organized by a Europe-wide consortium of natural history museums, research institutes, and taxonomic facilities. Taxonomy is the science of naming and classifying organisms, and it serves as the language that forms the foundation of many scientific disciplines. As one project manager put it, “To safeguard nature, we need more tools and capacity for accurate species recognition. This is why Taxonomy Recognition Day is not just a celebration; it’s a call to action.” Without taxonomy, conservation efforts lose their footing entirely. You cannot protect what you cannot name.
That point connects directly to World Turtle Day. Turtles have existed for approximately 220 million years, outlasting ice ages and mass extinctions. And yet, conservationists estimate that 61 percent of turtle species are now threatened or already extinct, with smuggling, the exotic food and pet trades, habitat destruction, and climate change among the primary drivers pushing them toward the brink. World Turtle Day was founded in 2000 by the American Tortoise Rescue, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the protection of all species of tortoises and turtles. This year marked its 26th anniversary. For 2026, participants were encouraged to join the “Turtle Protector Pledge” campaign with the message “I Promise to Help Turtles,” an initiative encouraging people to protect turtle habitats, support conservation efforts, and help reduce threats such as pollution and illegal
Taken together, this cluster of days in late May forms something of an unofficial argument for paying attention to the natural world. Bees hold up our food systems. Biodiversity holds up our ecosystems. Taxonomy gives scientists the vocabulary to understand what they are trying to save. And turtles, ancient and slow and somehow still here, remind us that survival is possible until it suddenly is not.
Awareness days are easy to dismiss as symbolic gestures. But they do something simple and valuable. They give people a reason to stop and pay attention, even briefly, to something they might otherwise scroll past. And in a month as busy and beautiful as May, that is worth something.
Step outside at dusk in Khao Lak and you will hear it instantly: a rising, pulsing chorus pouring out of the trees. That sound belongs to the cicada, one of southern Thailand’s most fascinating and overlooked creatures. From the garden of Khaolak Merlin Resort to the deep rainforests of Phang Nga, these remarkable insects have been singing the same songs for millions of years. But there is far more to them than noise.
