Colony collapse disorder and related pressures on honeybee populations represent both an ecological crisis and, if bees have welfare-relevant experiences, a massive animal welfare concern.
Whether bees have subjective experiences sufficient to constitute welfare interests remains scientifically contested, but evidence of learning, memory, emotion-like states, and nociception in bees suggests the possibility cannot be dismissed. At the scale of billions of bees dying annually from preventable causes including pesticide exposure and parasitic disease, even a small probability of sentience represents significant potential suffering. Bee welfare is also inseparable from ecosystem welfare given their pollination role.