The Bee Whisperers Slovenia have a plan to save the colonies of climate change

When Peter went down Kozmus his plane from New York to Ljubljana airport in Slovenia in 2017, he was expected to pack up and make his way home in silence to the conveyor belt. Instead, when he went into the arrival terminal, was welcomed by many people cheering, applauding and waving the national flag. Kozmus is not an athlete, a celebrity or a famous politician. He is a beekeeper. And that morning in 2017, became successful to explain at home with a delegation of the United Nations (UN) to petition officials on May 20 for a global bee day. “He ‘was like we were heroes,” said Kozmus recalls. “It ‘was like we were the athletes return with gold medals.” In Slovenia Beekeeping is a way of life. In this small European nation of 2 million, 1 in every 200 people is a beekeeper. That’s four times more than the European Union as a whole. Honey has many Slovenian and Slovenian dishes using many “apitherapy” (bee products) for the treatment of diseases and chronic injuries. Even the crown, the more than 1,400 people infected, killing at least 96, the country has slowed dedication to beekeeping. During the blockade, essential when beekeepers workers’ government that allow them to travel freely, to tend to their hives. Bees are essential workers they can do in life for people. Pollinate our crops and are responsible for one in three tablespoons of food we eat. They play an important role in balancing our ecosystems, global. “Beekeeping together our ecologies,” says Andrew Barron, a Neuroethologist that examines how products, the nervous system natural behavior of the animals. When they left, an apocryphal quote attributed to Albert Einstein often goes to “having to live only four years old would be.” Some bee species are declining. Europe bumblebee populations fell for example, by 17% from 2000 to 2014, while it decreased in North America, 46% of the population, the rates Scientists say that a mass extinction. Although the colonies of bees are not collapse at the same speed, it only last year still falling in many parts of the world, American beekeepers reported a 37% loss in bee colonies. There are several reasons, including the increasing use of pesticides and the decline in wildflowers growing, but a major factor is climate change – unpredictable seasons can affect pollen production, and higher than average temperatures, the bees, the ability disturbing the hive temperature regular. But in Slovenia, flourish bee populations. While several methods of investigation and limited data makes it difficult to bee populations in each country, the Slovenian Beekeepers Association reports to compare an annual increase of 2% in the number of bee colonies across the country. From 2007-2017, Slovenia has seen a 57% increase in the number of bees, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). see now that the climate crisis is threatening bee populations around the world, Slovenian beekeepers a chance to be more than just a director of a beloved tradition. They want to export foot soldiers in the fight against climate change to be by their unique beekeeping practices and progressive legislation on the rest of the world. “This is urgent,” said Kozmus. We love bees. ‘In the Julian Alps, where beekeepers tend their hives hives and children pour honey on their morning breakfast, it’s hard to imagine a life without bees. E ‘was here that he developed the first Kozmus an interest in beekeeping at the age of nine. After a beekeeper visited his elementary school, Kozmus asked his father to buy him a beekeeping. He says it’s the kind of guy who would sit in his reading room of bees and stay late after school work with beekeeping club. The community’s enthusiasm is no less intense; My email inquiries to Slovenian beekeeping responded immediately with exclamation and Emoji emoticons. more excited than once beekeepers pointed out that my name, Melissa, meaning “bee” in greek. “It’s part of who we are,” said Kozmus. Slovenian beekeeping dates back to the 18th century, when Maria Theresa, Empress of the Habsburg Empire, the first school of beekeeping in the world created us, the appointment of Anton Janša as the teachers of the school. Today Janša is considered the pioneer of modern beekeeping and Žirovnica, his native valley, the cradle of Slovene beekeeping. Bee World Day is celebrated on May 20 in honor of Janša’s birthday. Even when Slovenia was part of Yugoslavia changed-earlier, it gained independence in 1991 and I joined the EU in 2004 the citizens, the beekeeping tradition kept alive. “In Slovenia, beekeepers are those who care about the bees not only produce honey for the money, but because only the bees love it,” said Blaz Ambrozic, a beekeeper, who has inherited his beekeeping in the Julian Alps from his great uncle, when she was 11 beekeepers in the country can be a powerful force. The Slovenian Beekeepers Association, founded in 1873, has 8,000 members and its activities, ranging from beekeeping classes in schools organize printed in 2007, a national campaign to promote a traditional Slovenian honey for breakfast. His influence was clear about a decade ago, when beekeepers began Slovenian report that their bees were to die for. It is suspected the culprit was pesticides neonicotinoids, a class of nicotine as insecticides. The association went on to urge him to take action in Slovenia Ministry of Agriculture in the 2011th While anecdotal evidence neonicotinoids association that had the bees were killed, they had no definitive proof. Agriculture Minister at the time, Dejan Židan, the beekeeper instincts decided to trust and banned the use of neonicotinoids same year, one of the first European Union (EU) will bring in most of the restrictive measures. A farmer of neonicotinoids Slovenia was to be used in fines when they performed in the dead bees. Immediately after the ban, beekeepers have reported fewer bees dying. After that I decided to share the positive impact of a ban on neonicotinoids, Slovenian beekeepers her story with the rest of Europe. The Ministry of Agriculture prohibits the experience of Slovenia neonicotinoids the European Commission and a petition for the establishment of the ban on pesticides in all EU countries. By 2013, the EU has a moratorium for three types of pesticides neonicotinoid-clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam placed and has banned its use in crops of honey bees pollinate. In 2018, the EU continues to all crops, with growing evidence, extended the ban neonicotinoids collapsing bee colonies were created. Alarmed by the international community, Slovenia has helped the way for other countries to pave like the United States to ban the substance. “Slovenia was very active, as were the French beekeepers, everyone to bring this attention,” says Jeff Petis, president of Apimondia, the International Federation of beekeeping associations. In many other countries, politicians can not hear anecdotal evidence from small beekeepers. But in Slovenia, form an important demographic voters. “Because we have so many beekeepers have a lot of energy,” said Kozmus, who is chairman of beekeeping conferences for the Ministry of Agriculture. “Politicians do not want to beekeepers anger, because if there are elections, beekeepers an important population.” Minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Food, Aleksandra Pivec, who also serves as deputy prime minister of the country of Slovenia says it is important to listen to beekeepers because “the fact is that one in three tablespoons of food depends from the world ‘ pollination.” He added that the bees are “invaluable from both environmental and economic aspects.” the way the Slovenes the Slovenian beekeeping approach is based on ancient traditions, but also highly localized practices. For example, in 2002 the government gave state of preservation, the bee of Carinthia, Slovenia native bee. E ‘banned the import of Honigbienenart to prevent the introduction of new diseases and funded a breeding program for the species. Today bee Carinthia is the species of native bees only protected in the European Union. Experts, including the United States, as the emphasis, in other countries, not on local species, often from abroad to import bees instead. These types are less adapted to their new environment, they are more susceptible to the disease. With climate change, some experts say that many species of foreign bees are less likely to adapt. “Slovenian Beekeepers are intelligent because they use their own bees,” says Alexis Beaurepaire, a post-doctoral researcher at the Institute for bee health. “When you look at other countries, people continue importing bees and then wonder why they do not survive their bees. But bees do not realize that the environment and are not used to.” Slovenia is also unique its “hive promote az “after intials of its creator, Anton Žnideršic. In Slovenia, 90% of Carnica bee colonies live in the development of these little hives painted in the early 20th century. The hives Az, which seems more mobile than the stack in the hives popular US, beekeepers allowed their colonies more closely and effectively monitor mode. They also protect the bees from harsh winter conditions, including strong winds and cold temperatures. In the context of climate change, some experts say that this model problems with extreme weather conditions that can ward. Working on a smaller scale with Az Slovenian beekeepers hives may arise on site in case of problems with their colonies, as was the case with neonicotinoids. Other countries, including the United States, have an industrialized mass approach to beekeeping, where the colonies is present in many small rooms, as they would in nature and are moving on to bigger plots, resulting in a larger parasitic varroa and other disease transmission. “In the US, thousands of beekeepers hives,” says William Blomstedt, an American beekeepers in Slovenia lives. “But here there are people less hives, maybe have a few dozen or a hundred, but it can actually treat and monitor their bees.” While hives AZ is more time consuming and difficult to scale up, they are increasingly popular with honey farmers in the world. In response to a growing global interest in the Slovene bees practices, the government has managed beekeeping Academy of Slovenia in April 2018 to educate beekeepers from around the world on the Slovene bees practices. Think globally, but forecasts of increasingly erratic weather, with flowers blooming is erratic and crashes out of season beekeepers landscape and Slovenia have a departing coverage script their ancestors left them. “What it means to be a beekeeper, has changed,” said Ambrozic, who stressed that Slovenia has only an unusually late snowfall had bees to influence the foraging process. “We need to think big.” This means looking beyond the borders of Slovenia and build an international coalition. The success of neonicotinoids campaign taught Slovenian beekeepers who could be advocates for honeybees worldwide. Peter Kozmus traveled the world with a delegation of other countries to persuade the United States to South Korea, the inauguration of the United Nations dedicated to supporting bees one day. After three years of lobbying, the General Assembly of the United Nations unanimously declared May 20 as World Day Bee in 2017 individuals and organizations on the conservation work of the bees now gather on this day to raise awareness about the importance of bees for our environments and food systems and brainstorming ways they can work together across fields and borders. “We do not want to be World Day Bee a party because we have nothing to celebrate today,” said Kozmus, noting that bee populations declining rapidly worldwide. “We want to use this day as a tool to inform people that the bees are important.” Experts say that this kind of effort from Slovenia international interest in bees to promote conservation was successful. “North America, in general, will draw bees thinking as charismatic creatures after”, he says Geoffrey Williams informed the Bee Partnership, a non-profit group at the University of Maryland focused bees Save. “Slowly, there is great interest in the development in the maintenance of bees. We are pursuing their first steps. To protect ‘bees Kozmus has made around the world. But in the Kozjansko valley, tents, still on his 100 hives next to his wife and three children. Like most Slovene Beekeeper be painted plates on Kozmus’ colored Beekeeper and tell a story. On the upper plate wooden acacia flowers hand-drawn, among other wild plants. “These are the bees plants need,” he says. A number followed, various bee products such as honey and gelatin showed. The bottom line, preferred Kozmus, is full of iconic symbols of the Slovenian beekeeping: a portrait of Janša, beekeeping clubs students images and painted letters proud that magic, providing world-Bee Day ‘plates a reminder, he says, that the world can take action, global warming, ban dangerous pesticides and order to curb environmental destruction. “Everyone can do something to bees,” he says. Correction May 19 The original version of this story false information to categorize the bee Carinthia. It is a subspecies of the Western honey bees, not a single species.
Photo copyright Luka Dakskobler