The seventh edition of the Mediterranean Beekeeping Forum, titled “Beekeeping as the focus of biodiversity and food security” will be held in Tunis from the 26th to 28th of November 2015.
The event is organized by FELCOS Umbria ( Fund of Local Autorithies for Decentralized Cooperation and for Sustainable Human Development) , APIMED ( Mediterranean Beekeepers Federation) and INAT (National Agronomic Institute of Tunisia), in collaboration with UNDP/ART Initiative (United Nations Development Programme) , DIPSA (Agricultural Sciences Department of the University of Bologna) and DISAFA (Agricultural, Forestry and Food Sciences Department of the University of Turin), within the framework of the project “Mediterranean CooBEEration: a network for the beekeeping, food security and biodiversity”, financed by the European Union, of which FELCOS Umbria is lead partner.
This edition will put at the heart of the debate the definition of the best common actions to undertake in order to support and enhance territorial bee-keeping productions of the Mediterranean; protect bees and beekeeping; and safeguard the Mediterranean natural ecosystems and the biodiversity of the plant species.
Furthermore, during the Forum of Tunis the “CooBEEration” Campaign will be presented, an international information and awareness initiative that aims to change the perception of beekeeping within public opinion, local, national and international institutions, farmers and beekeepers: as a concept of merely an income generator activity to a wider and strategic idea of beekeeping as Global Common Good, essential for the safeguard of biodiversity and for the human well-being.
The Mediterranean Beekeeping Forum (MBF) originates in Foligno in 2007 on the initiative of APAU (Association of Umbrian Beekeepers), FELCOS Umbria and Municipality of Foligno, with the support of UNDP ART Initiative, in accordance with the neighborhood policy promoted by the European Union with respect to the Middle East and the African Countries bordering the Mediterranean see and with the most recent political initiative of the EU for the Mediterranean.
Following the first two editions carried out in Foligno the Forum became itinerant: after 2009, it was held in Berkane, Morocco and in Beirut; then in Lebanon in 2010; in 2011 the forum returned to Foligno. Since its beginning the Forum has represented a significant and unique opportunity of dialogue and discussion among the Mediterranean beekeepers and their networks. It has lead to the strengthening of an alliance of associations and cooperatives of beekeepers and to the involvement of various research institutes, local authorities and local, national and international institutions. Among the most important stages of the Forum we recall, in particular, the fourth edition in Beirut in 2010, where the operative proposal of the “CooBEEration” initiative originated; that is, the commitment to build a global alliance to promote sustainable development, food security and biodiversity through bees and beekeeping. Another to be recalled is the fifth edition, held in Foligno in 2011, during which APIMED was officially established; the only associative subject currently present at the Mediterranean regional level, bringing together 21 associations, cooperatives and national beekeepers federations from Algeria, Morocco, Italy, Albania, Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt and from the adjacent countries Iraq and Jordan.
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