\n\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Renowned scientists from around the world came together to give an overview of beekeeping and bee mortality in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas, and assess key needs and actions to protect bees around the world.\n<\/p>\n
\n\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Apart from the honey they produce, bees are vitally important pollinators of fruit and vegetable crops. It is estimated that pollinators, especially bees, are responsible for about one in three bites of the food we eat.\n<\/p>\n
\n\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 For much of the last ten years, beekeepers, primarily in the United States and Europe, have been reporting annual hive losses of 30 percent or higher, which is substantially more than is considered normal or sustainable. Many bee species and other pollinating insects have experienced a sharp decline in numbers, raising major concerns about the impacts on food supplies and environmental health.\n<\/p>\n
\n\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cThe increase in honeybee mortality is a puzzle,\u201d said researcher Dennis vanEngelsdorp, an entomologist from the University of Maryland. \u201cWe know that it involves the parasitic varroa mite, we know it is a result of poor bee nutrition, and there is increasing evidence (in the US) that more and more land in the Midwest is being ploughed under by corn and soybean, with increased exposure to pesticides \u2013 so we think it is a multi factorial process.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Other factors being blamed for the decline include climate change and drought, less biodiverse forage for bees, lack of genetic diversity and danger from alien species.\n<\/p>\n
\n\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cIf we want to continue to produce fruits and vegetables in industrialised countries,\u201d continued vanEngelsdorp, \u201cwe need to have a viable and sustainable pollination service, and that is largely provided through the honeybee industry.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\t\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe)<\/a>, based in Kenya, conducts research on African insect problems associated with food and health. \u201cAs forests are cleared for agricultural production and bees are exposed to pesticides, beekeepers have reported a decline in bee numbers,\u201d said Principal Scientist, Dr Baldwyn Torto. \u201cThis is reflected in the fact that Kenya, which once had a rich supply of indigenous honey, is now a honey importer.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Over the past two years, icipe has collaborated with researchers from Penn State University to assess the situation. \u201cWe discovered that some of the diseases that have been found in European bees are now present in Kenya, and this is a cause for alarm,\u201d said Torto.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cWe have to find out if this is beyond Kenya and into other African countries,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In early June, the EU announced that it would invest \u20ac 13.1 million in bee health, to improve food security and protect biodiversity in Africa. This includes an agreement <\/a>with the African Union\u2013InterAfrican Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR)<\/a> and icipe to establish an African reference laboratory (ARL) for research and capacity building on bee health at icipe’s headquarters in Nairobi, and at four bee health satellite stations in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia and Liberia.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This support is provided under the Food Security Thematic Programme budget line, which addresses research, technology transfer and innovation to enhance food security. The funds will facilitate the supply of equipment and refurbishing of facilities, capacity building and provision of expertise for the ARL and the satellite stations.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cWe will look at pesticide residues, diseases, pests and viruses, and will develop capacities at all levels, from beekeepers through to policy decision makers, in various parts of Africa,\u201d said Torto.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The findings will guide the incorporation of strategies, harmonised procedures and legislation on bee health into national development agendas across the continent, and contribute in working towards a pan-African framework on bee health.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cWe have to do this now, before it is too late,\u201d stressed Torto.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Similar research is being done at Chiang Mai University in Northern Thailand, where Dr Pannuwan Chantawannakul has been researching bee diseases for nearly ten years.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n\t \n\t\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 According to her, in Thailand there are at least five honeybee species: three wild bee and two domesticated types. Of the latter, the introduced European honeybees have suffered a 10% loss, and in the infested colonies, many viruses were found.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cThe wild bees abscond and change their hives every year so it is hard to quantify losses, but through talking with the locals, I can say that wild bees are in great decline, due to climate change, deforestation, agriculture extension and human population pressure,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Thai Government supports beekeepers by providing agricultural extension courses, particularly about how to manage disease, and to educate them on the dangers of using chemical materials in their hives. Dr Chantawannakul\u2019s team is experimenting with natural alternatives to combat disease, made from lemongrass oil.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cThe challenge to bee research is that we need more input in science and innovation,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 She pointed out that beekeepers need economic incentives to continue their work. \u201cThe bee scientists have to be more innovative to use products in an unconventional way,\u201d she said. To this end, Chiang Mai University is testing the spinning of nanofibre with propolis for use in a high-end technology.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cThis has never been done before,\u201d she added.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Dr vanEngelsdorp also pushed for incentives to make beekeeping an economically viable activity, and to encourage more people to keep bees.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He said that \u201ca multi-pronged solution\u201d is needed for \u201cthe multi-pronged problem\u201d of bee decline, which he said would need to include the following three major elements:\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cThere needs to be more bee forage in the environment: a certain percentage of agricultural land needs to be put aside to the production of bee forage. At home, make meadows and not lawns!\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cWe need to reconsider pesticide use practices and labeling: for instance, fungicide is not considered a problem for bees \u2013 they can swim in it, but the effects are seen in the next generation, and those are sublethal. We have to reconsider how we label and assess the risk of pesticides.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cIn the US, all the corn and all the soybeans are treated with neonicotinoid pesticides: these are good pesticides in that they require a lot less active ingredient per hectare than traditional spray pesticides, but do we really need to have every single corn seed treated with this product? We need to reconsider our policy there,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The EC has placed a two-year ban on three types of neonicotinoids, a class of pesticides suspected of playing a role in colony collapse disorder (CCD), which will come into effect in December. This decision is a response to the European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA) scientific report<\/a>, which builds on bee health programmes such as EC supported BEEDOC<\/a>, STEP<\/a>\u00a0and others<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But the interest and support shown now by global decision makers towards protecting the pollinators is seen by many long-term lobbyists as \u201ctoo little, too late\u201d, with allegations that governments may have seriously under-calculated the risks to biodiversity and global food security associated with apian atrophy.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cIn Africa, none of us imagined that the bees could die out,\u201d said Dr Torto, \u201cBut I\u2019m excited that we are now in the position to try to prevent that from happening.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Watch the full interviews<\/a> by Baldwyn Torto, Dennis vanEngelsdorp and Panuwan Chantawannakul\u00a0in the Public Group for the Environment, Climate Change and Green Economy.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This collaborative piece was drafted with input from Suresh Kumar Raina (icipe),\u00a0Thierry Lucas<\/a>,\u00a0Thierry Dudermel<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Steven Wathome, with support from the capacity4dev.eu Coordination Team.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 DISCLAIMER: This information is provided in the interests of knowledge sharing and capacity development and should not be interpreted as the official view of the European Commission.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 source: http:\/\/capacity4dev.ec.europa.eu\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n\t\t5 reasons why you can become an Add-Energy Renewable Romania PARTNER<\/a><\/span><\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n \n\t\tTo register your Company as ADD ENERGY PARTNER , please access \u00a0\u00a0 \n\t\tFor other informations click to\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A similar decline in Africa and Asia has the potential to further threaten the world\u2019s biodiversity, in addition to compromising the food security and livelihoods of millions of rural resource-poor farmers, as well as having negative impacts on the agricultural income of commercial farmers. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Through the support of Gaston Franco, Member of the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,374,33,349,250,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-clima-si-mediul-inconjurator","category-climate-and-the-environment-3","category-informatii-din-presa-internationala","category-international-press","category-news","category-stiri-utile-noutati"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/add-energy.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/add-energy.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/add-energy.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/add-energy.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/add-energy.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/add-energy.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14286\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/add-energy.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/add-energy.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/add-energy.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Declining](\"http:\/\/add-energy.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Declining-Bee-Numbers-02-300x235.jpg\")
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