CooBEEration Campaign: at ‘ Fa la cosa giusta Umbria’ the official launch of the international awareness initiative about the values of Beekeeping as a Common Good

Umbria region, ANCI Umbria and the municipality of Foligno are the first supporters of the Campaign

PHOTO: A moment of the press conference

The CooBEEration Campaign, an international awareness initiative about the value of the Beekeeping as a Common Good, officially began on Friday the 2nd of October at the “Fa' la cosa giusta! Umbria” exhibition; it takes part of the activities of the “Mediterranean CooBEEration” project, financed by the European Union, promoted by FELCOS Umbria (Fund of Local Authorities for Decentralized Cooperation and Human Sustainable Development) in collaboration with APIMED (Mediterranean Beekeepers Association), UNDP (United Nations Development Programme), and with important research organisms such as DISFA (Department of Agricultural, Forestry and Food Sciences of the University of Turin), DIPSA (Department of Agricultural Sciences of the University of Bologna) and INAT (Tunisia National Agronomic Institute).

The firsts in joining the Campaign and leading the way to this journey are the Umbria Region, ANCI Umbria and the municipality of Foligno, as testimony of territorial awareness, the green heart of Italy, matters on environment protection. “We enthusiastically embrace this Campaign”, declared Fernanda Cecchini, Assessor for the agricultural and agri-food politics of the Umbria Region, “confirming our commitment to beekeeping as fundamental element for the economic development of our territory and for its strategic role in biodiversity and food security protection”.

ANCI Umbria also joined the Campaign with confidence, and commits itself to enhancing Beekeeping as Common Good, calling on all the Italian municipalities to join the Campaign: “Umbrian municipalities, green heart of Italy, should initially set the example of becoming BeeFriendly Municipalities and proving their awareness about environment protection topics”, added Paolo Maurizio Talanti, President of the ANCI Umbria “Environment and Energy” Board. The first BeeFriendly municipality is in fact Foligno, for many years active in and aware of the strategic paper of the Beekeeping in the territory: “We are particularly proud of being the first Italian municipality to join the CooBEEration Campaign”, said Giovanni Patriarchi, Assessor for the economic development of the municipality of Foligno. “After all", continues the Assessor "the municipality of Foligno and FELCOS Umbria have cooperated for years on beekeeping enhancing topics".

Three objectives of the CooBEEration Campaign:

- fostering awareness about the role of bees and beekeeping for the biodiversity and food security protection, and as an opportunity of sustainable economic development of the territory;

- enhancing the commitment of the governments, national and international institutions and fostering a progressive change towards a greater account of beekeeping within the appropriate political sector and in the territory management, in order to draft laws and regulations for bees and beekeeping protection and enhancement as Common Good;

- building a global alliance between actors interested in cooperating in the protection of bees and beekeeping, recognizing its importance as common heritage: farmers and beekeepers, social actors, local and international institutions, economic actors, universities, research centers, schools and citizens.

Everyone can do their bit in order to reach those objectives: at the forefront, beekeepers, from whom a strong alliance is expected, encourage the update on eco-sustainable production techniques and the use of products that are safe for the bees' health, and deliver beehives in areas whose environment is depredated to support the plant repopulation.

Farmers are asked to favor sustainable agricultural models, to reduce the usage of pesticides and to endorse beekeeping in their lands, for the quality of the cultivations. Territories, regions, municipalities and provinces are asked to rethink themselves as “BeeFriendly", supporting the development of the beekeeping activities; to plan for some public nectarean green areas, or to adopt a lawn, for it to become an information point of the Campaign. Citizens can protect bees by preferring a low ecologic impact nutrition or growing bee-friendly aromatic plants on their balconies; in schools, teaching children to respect the environment, involving them in the bee-friendly plant-growing and establishing a “day of the bee”, inviting a beekeeper from the area. Lastly, call is for the various associations, cultural and environmental, to make them embrace the Campaign in supporting Beekeeping as Common Good; in turn, becoming information and divulgation centers for their associates.

The Campaign invites all to participate as messengers of a “good way” to promote the Beekeeping as Common Good.

To join the Campaign: www.coobeerationcampaign.org

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