Plan Bee campaign ~ Help to Save the Honey Bees

by Naomi from the Co-Op
(UK)

I recently wrote to the co-operative society who have a national campaign to bring awareness to the plight of our honey bees and not just those in England.

There are of course vast amounts of research and campaigns worldwide which continue to enlighten us all into what could be quite catastrophic for us ALL.

If you know of such a campaign you are very welcome to submit it here along with a few details.

I had hoped to secure an interview however, Naomi from the co-op kindly sent me this email instead.

...........................................................................................

Hello Janette

Thank you for your interest in the Plan Bee campaign. Please find below an article you can use on your website if you wish.

Kind regards

Naomi


In recent years bee populations have declined globally. In the UK, a fifth of honeybee hives did not survive last winter, that is a lot of bees dying and no one knows for certain why. Pesticides, disease, the weather and importing of non native bees species have all been blamed but it is likely that a combination of factors is at play. A third of the food we eat is reliant on pollination by bees including apples, pears, raspberries, carrots and onions. In total some 90 crops are reliant on bees and their work as pollinators contributes £200m a year to the UK economy. Whilst we wouldn?t starve if the bees died out, we would be left with a very uninteresting diet.

In 2009, The Co-operative Group launched Plan Bee, a campaign worth over £500,000 to help reverse the decline in the UK bee population. As the UKs largest farmer and a major food retailer, bees are essential to our business. Plan Bee focuses on four key areas of action: prohibiting the use, on our fresh produce, of a group of pesticides linked to bee declines elsewhere in Europe; inviting beekeepers to keep hives on our farmland; funding research into the causes of the bee decline; and inspiring people to take actions in their own gardens to help bees. To date we have:
· given away over 600,000 packets of wildflower seeds, which once grown provide essential nutrition for bees;
· piloted an urban beekeeper training project to teach allotment holders to keep bees, as a result there will be 3 million more bees in Manchester by this summer;
· over 600 hives on our farm land;
· funded research projects to develop a wildflower seed mix best suited to honeybees to be grown on our farms and to map populations of the native British black bee, which may be best suited to our colder climate;
· taken our Plan Bee trailer on tour, giving 1.5 million people the opportunity to learn ore about bees; and
· supported the UK release of ?the Vanishing of the Bees?, a film on the causes of declining bee populations

If you would like to learn more about Plan Bee and how you can support bees, please visit

www.co-operative.coop/planbee