Castel Porziano/Rome – Marking World Bee Day 2024, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director-General QU Dongyu today urged young people to learn more about bees and pollinators, including traditional and high-tech beekeeping , and thus help safeguard the vital role these small creatures play in agriculture, ecological balance and the preservation of biodiversity.
Qu made the comments at the celebration of World Bee Day 2024, held at the Italian Presidential Palace in Castelporziano, Rome, with the participation of the President of APIMONDIA, the International Federation of Beekeepers Associations, Jeff Pettis.
The ceremony included the inauguration of educational panels on the path leading to the center dedicated to the study of bees located on the Estate. In the context of this year’s World Bee Day theme, “Bees Engaging with Young People”, a group of young students also participated in the event.
Small creatures with enormous potential, bees and other pollinators play a crucial role in life on Earth. Through their meticulous pollination work, they help increase the quantity, quality and diversity of our food, on which around 75% of the world’s crops depend. Hence the need to value and protect them.
The FAO Director-General explained that, for producers, this translates into replacing harmful agricultural practices with pollinator-friendly practices. For beekeepers, it means promoting the sustainable use of bees and locally adapted plants. For governments and policymakers, implementing policies that guarantee harmony between agriculture and bees, and for consumers, it means being careful and informed when choosing products, checking where and how the food was produced.
“Young people, protagonists of World Bee Day 2024, can make a fundamental contribution through greater awareness of the importance of bees that can transform into business involvement as beekeepers. We need young farmers and beekeepers who can face the many current challenges and that can contribute to innovation in the production chain”, said Francesco Lollobrigida, Minister of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forests of Italy, in the speech read on his behalf by Stefania Costanza, Deputy Permanent Representative of the United Nations in Rome.
“Pollination is critical to our diets,” said Jeff Pettis, president of Apimondia, in his remarks during the ceremony, “If we truly want to protect 30 percent of our planet by 2030, we need to act on the importance of protecting bees to preserve biodiversity and combat climate change.”
During the ceremony, FAO and APIMONDIA extended their Memorandum of Understanding, which is based on more than 60 years of collaboration and aims to strengthen collaboration between FAO and Apimondia for sustainable beekeeping.
FAO worked in synergy with Tenuta staff to develop five educational panels that illustrate the importance of sustainable beekeeping and the vital role that pollinators play in nature, such as ensuring the survival of many plants, enabling forest regeneration and facilitating adaptation to climate change. Each panel has a QR code that facilitates access to translation in all FAO official languages; Surrounding the educational facilities are flower beds that display a variety of flora enjoyed by bees and other pollinators.
Experts from the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Lazio e della Toscana (IZSLT) present at the ceremony shared their knowledge and experiences with the young audience.
Beekeeping, an activity beyond honey production
This year’s youth-focused World Bee Day aims to convey the message that investment in youth-led beekeeping initiatives accelerates innovation, creativity and technological advancement that can help address emerging challenges facing small pollinators , including extreme weather events, the use of pesticides in agriculture and the spread of pests.
World Bee Day was established in 2017 by a United Nations resolution, at the proposal of the Government of Slovenia to promote actions that governments, the private sector, organizations, civil society and citizens can take to protect bees and others pollinators and their habitats, promote their diversity and promote sustainable beekeeping practices.
Beekeeping is an activity that goes beyond honey production and contributes to achieving many Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Because it can be practiced with limited resources and locally available materials, beekeeping provides a source of income for those living in extreme poverty, helping to improve the resilience and livelihoods of rural and indigenous communities.
The role of FAO
FAO has a long-standing commitment to promoting policies that support the biological control of plant pests and limit the use of pesticides, through the Global Action on Pollination Services for Sustainable Agriculture, with the aim of building greater habitat diversity in agricultural and urban environments. Through new technologies such as TECA – an online platform that brings together successful agricultural technologies and practices – FAO is working to promote knowledge exchange and sustainable rural transformation, contributing to the achievement of the SDGs. Launched by FAO in 2002 and managed by the FAO Research and Extension Unit (OIN), the TECA platform addresses the need for a systematic and user-friendly online repository of technologies, practices and innovations in traditional agriculture.
