VI Mediterranean Beekeeping Forum

An event organised in the framework of the Mediterranean CooBEEration project

Andrea Olivero, Italian Deputy Minister of Agriculture

In the framework of the project “Mediterranean CooBEEration: a network for beekeeping, food security and biodiversity”, co-funded by the European Union, the VI Mediterranean Beekeeping Forum took place in Foligno (Italy) from 7 to 9 November. The event was organized by APIMED (Mediterranean Beekeeping Federation), FELCOS Umbria (Fund of Local Authorities for Decentralized Cooperation and Sustainable Human Development), the UNDP (United Nations Development Program), through the ART Initiative, the city council of Foligno and APAU (Umbrian Beekeepers and Honey Producers Association), with the patronage of Region of Umbria.

The forum, entitled "Beekeeping, Common Good: from food safety to environmental protection", was attended by over 200 people from 10 countries of the Mediterranean basin (Italy, Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Palestine, Portugal, Lebanon, Albania and Croatia) – and also from the Dominican Republic – and by 50 delegates of various institutions and organizations. The Forum represented an important turning point in the recognition of the role of beekeeping as a strategic activity to contribute to the preservation of biodiversity, food production, as well as a real opportunity for a sustainable economic development of the territories.

The event, one of the most important moments for the entire international beekeeping sector, provided a space for discussion and interchange of experiences among beekeepers. Moreover, it fostered a political dialogue between beekeepers and institutions, national and international, in order to establish an alliance for the defense of bees and the development of beekeeping, proposing a new conception of bees and beekeeping as a Common Good, essential and inalienable patrimony of all of us.

The Forum was attended by many international leading figures, with the participation, among others, of Andrea Olivero, Italian Deputy Minister of Agriculture; Fernanda Cecchini, Regional Councilor for Agriculture in Umbria; Giovanni Camilleri, International Coordinator of the UNDP ART Initiative, Rosalud de La Rosa from FAO, Vincenzo Panettieri, President of APIMED, Joseph Flagiello, President of FELCOS Umbria, and many representatives of the Mediterranean Beekeepers Association, of international governments, researchers and institutions.

In particular, the Deputy Minister Olivero, in his speech, remarked that beekeeping is a “key for biodiversity, a spy for agro-environmental safety and a resource for development", proposing to build a space dedicated to beekeeping within Expo 2015.

The “Mediterranean CooBEEration” project, the framework where the Forum took place and whose partners are FELCOS Umbria, leader of the action, APIMED, UNDP, DIPSA - Department of Agro-Environmental Sciences and Technology of the University of Bologna - and INAT - National Agronomic Institute of Tunisia – represents the natural progression and the capitalization of a long process in support of beekeeping, launched in 2007 by APAU and FELCOS Umbria, with the support of the UNDP ART Initiative. This process has contributed to the recognition of beekeeping as an opportunity for the sustainable development of the territories, from an economic, social and environmental point of view, and that it plays a strategic and irreplaceable role in food safety and biodiversity.

These activities allowed to create and consolidate a significant network of contacts and collaborations among several associations and networks of beekeepers from different Mediterranean countries, to implement training activities and technical assistance, and to develop and organize - from 2007 to 2011 - five editions of the Mediterranean Beekeeping Forum. The sixth edition, which has just ended, has allowed establishing and consolidating the role of beekeeping in biodiversity protection.

Also UNDP highlighted the importance of this process and during the Forum, Giovanni Camilleri, International Coordinator of the UNDP ART Initiative, reminded the importance of the Mediterranean Beekeeping Forum, outlining how it “belongs totally to the process launched by UNDP, which will culminate in the 3^rd World Forum on Local Economic Development that will be held in Turin from 13 to 16 October 2015, and will be an opportunity to further analyze key questions related to sustainable development”.

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