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https://reasonstobecheerful.world/slovenia-beekeepers-protecting-pollinators/>
"Beekeeping has been a way of life for Peter Kozmus since he was 14 years old.
He had been part of a beekeeping club at school, and when his mentor decided to
retire and sell his bee colonies, he jumped at the opportunity. “My dad was a
bit surprised,” he laughs, “but luckily he made it possible for me to set up
the hive and I’ve been a beekeeper ever since.” Today, Dr. Kozmus is a
world-renowned beekeeping expert, vice president of the International
Federation of Beekeepers’ Associations Apimondia, head of the breeding program
at Slovenian Beekeepers’ Association and what can be best described as a bee
diplomat, advocating for bees at home and abroad.
It’s a career path that only really makes sense in Slovenia, a Central European
country of two million inhabitants, over 11,000 of whom are beekeepers — the
highest amount per capita in Europe. With its own indigenous Carniolan honey
bee and over 230 years of beekeeping tradition — Anton Janša, the first
beekeeping teacher at the Habsburg court, is considered a pioneer of modern
beekeeping — Slovenia is a world leader in the field.
“Being a small country can be a benefit, because we only have one national
beekeepers’ association,” explains Dr. Kozmus, who also serves as chair of the
Beekeeping Council at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food. “It makes
our relationship with the Ministry a lot more straightforward.” The Slovenian
Beekeepers’ Association showed its influence in 2011, when its members started
reporting mass bee die-offs and expressed suspicions that neonicotinoids, a
class of neurotoxic pesticides that are chemically similar to nicotine, were to
blame. The association urged the Ministry of Agriculture to take action, and
that same year Slovenia became one of the first European countries to ban their
use. As evidence mounted on the negative impact of neonicotinoid pesticides on
bees, an EU-wide ban followed in 2018.
World Bee Day, which has been celebrated on May 20 since 2018, was also
initiated by Slovenia as a way to educate the global public and mobilize
support. As Dr. Kozmus explains, “Beekeepers have the problem that the
environment is changing in ways that aren’t friendly to bees and other
pollinators. We can solve some of these problems ourselves, but for others we
need help, and a World Bee Day seemed like the best opportunity and tool to get
that.” This year World Bee Day focused on educating young people, which has
long been a theme in Slovenia: A third of primary schools have beekeeping clubs
like the one that inspired Dr. Kozmus, with over 2,000 children attending this
year, and since 2018 beekeeping has also been an elective subject in the
national primary school curriculum."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
