[imagesource: Dan Winters / National Geographic]

Bees are an important part of various ecosystems, but they are under threat from parasites, pesticides, habitat loss, and climate change.

That’s why a global network of women will be trained to protect these essential pollinators as beekeeper-entrepreneurs under the UNESCO-Guerlain program, Woman for Bees.

Angelina Jolie is one of those women, and she is causing some well-deserved buzz around the cause by not having a shower for three days to get the big bee shot.

Jolie posed for the striking portrait for National Geographic to draw attention to World Bee Day and the UNESCO-Guerlain program:

 

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Did you swipe for the video of her frosty stillness while the bees climbed all over her?

Impressive.

The actress/activist, who was photographed by amateur beekeeper Dan Winters, explains why not showering was important for the shot, via Daily Mail:

“It was so funny to be in hair and makeup and wiping yourself with pheromone”, the Maleficent actress said.

“We couldn’t shower for three days before. Because they told me, ‘If you have all these different scents, shampoos and perfumes and things, the bee doesn’t know what you are.’

…”Then you put a few things up your nose and in your ears so you don’t give them as many holes to climb in.”

But one mischievous bee did manage to climb where it really shouldn’t have:

“I did have one that got under my dress the entire time. It was like one of those old comedies,” she added.

“I kept feeling it on my knee, on my leg, and then I thought, ‘Oh, this is the worst place to get stung. It’s getting really close.’ It stayed there the entire time we were doing the shoot. And then when I got all the other bees off, I lifted the skirt and he went away.”

Being designated the ‘godmother’ for Women for Bees, Jolie shares how lovely it felt “to be connected to these beautiful creatures”:

“I think part of the thought behind it was, this creature is seen as dangerous sometimes or stinging. So how do we just be with it? The intention is we share this planet. We are affected by each other. This is what it should feel like and it really did, and I felt very honoured and very lucky to have the experience.”

That’s a great all-around perspective to end off with: we need to lean into our fragility and the mutualist relationship between the fauna and flora on this planet to do something about the threat we all face.

[sources:dailymail&nationalgeographic]