The National Beekeeping Forum among the desert bees

The trip of the Mediterranean beekeepers resumes in Algeria. They have reunited by means of forums, since 2007, in countries from this big region to discuss honey, breeding and production and also about environment, food security, and biodiversity

All topics that show how beekeeping might contribute in a cross-cutting and significant way to a serious and unifying debate about the ways to protect beekeeping from the assaults of the market and new agricultural technologies; a very ancient, yet still very contemporary activity involved in safeguarding the environment and biological diversity.

The Algeria National Beekeeping Forum, entitled “The bee, a universal strategic resource for local development, biodiversity and food security”, to be held in Algeria on the 27th and 28th of January, will discuss honey and the principles of quality approved in Tunisi precisely two months ago; the former, included in the new “Charter of the Mediterranean Honey”.

Even bees will have their own space in the various sessions of the Forum, in particular the Desert Bee (Apis Mellifera Sahariensis B.) which lives on the edges of the Algerian Sahara and in the great oasis; it represents to this day, to those who cross it, the only landing places on this land of sand, by far vaster than the entire Mediterranean Sea.

The event is organized by FELCOS Umbria (Fund of Local Authorities for decentralized Cooperation and forSustainabl human development); APIMED (Federation of Mediterranean Beekeepers) the UNDP/ART Initiative; DIPSA (Agricultural Sciences Department of the University of Bologna); DISAFA (Agricultural, Forestry and Food Sciences Department of the University of Turin) and INAT (National Agronomic Institute of Tunisia), in collaboration with the newly created National Professionals Beekeepers Association of Algeria (ANAP) and with the Patronage of the Algerian Ministry of Agriculture, in the framework of the “Mediterranean CooBEEration: a network for beekeeping, biodiversity and food security” project, financed by the European Union, of which FELCOS Umbria is lead partner.

The Forum poses an opportunity to present the CooBEEration Campaign in Algeria, an international campaign of awareness and information about the value of Beekeeping as Common Good, promoted by FELCOS Umbria and APIMED in collaboration with the partners of the project.

Moreover, the first congress of the ANAP will be held in the course of the Forum to discuss the quality of honey; breeding and production techniques useful for the improvement of the characteristics the various kinds of local honey; and the possibility of bringing precious and rare honey produced in the most remote and fascinating areas of the Algerian desert to the national and international markets.

The next appointments with the Mediterranean Beekeeping Forum are scheduled in Palestine and Morocco.

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