Beekeeping is considered one of the most important agricultural activities around the world. Most of world’s flowering plants, including 80% of the world’s species of food plants, rely on pollinators for reproduction. There are clear indications of a loss of wild and domestic pollinators with a number of negative ecological and economic impacts. "Live and Let Bee: Training for Ecological Beekeeping" Project aims an exchange of know-how, sharing best practices, providing trainings that are geared towards both urban and rural dwellers, dissemination of pollinator-friendly knowledge and creating awareness to tackle this problem. The project will reach out to both rural and urban populations, since the problem and the solution lie in both places. Expected results of the project are: - Review and documentation of existing ecological beekeeping methods - Training materials on ecological beekeeping - Web site for Open Educational Resources - Training in Istanbul - Ecological Beekeeping Conference in Istanbul A select group of beekeepers from the partner organisations will get to visit the good practices in partnering countries. They will learn from each other’s practices. The group will be selected from people who can personally implement the knowledge and also disseminate it among the beekeepers and honey producers within the network of respective participating project partners. For the on-site trainings, the trainees will be visiting good practices and learning from local bee keepers/honey producers in the partnering countries. They will learn how the bees survive/cope/react/produce in different geographical regions, climates, vegetation and pesticide use. The traditional beekeeping methods still being practiced especially in Macedonia and Turkey will be documented with photographs, videos and in a written manner. This documentation will be used in preparing the training materials and will help protect the traditional methods. The training materials to be developed will include information and guide for: 1. people who want to start hive(s) 2. beekeepers about how to fight the common pest problems ecologically 3. beekeepers about how to maintain and support healthy bee populations 4. beekeepers who want to get organic certification for the organically-produced honey 5. local governance bodies babout how to support bee populations in the region 6. urban dwellers about how to support pollinators in the city, ei creating bee-friendly gardens and balconies 7. honey consumers about what to look for in eco-friendly honey and how to access it through community based agriculture. The website will be structured as an online learning guide, where it will provide a step-by-step guide to bee enthusiasts and people who want to help protect bees and provide habitat for pollinators. Demand will be created for ecological, organic honey through dissemination, enabling consumers to access healthy honey and the producers to sell their product. Direct selling to consumers will be encouraged, following the foot steps of Bugday’s community supported agriculture model LetBee project will reach 15,000 people via: 1) The online training materials in multiple languages will reach to thousands of internet users 2) The future trainings to be organised by the partners in the UK and the Netherlands on beekeeping will reach to hundreds of trainees 3) The conference in Istanbul will reach hundreds of ecologicaly-minded people, small farmers, bee enthusiasts and governmental officials Impacts: - The beekeepers visiting other partner countries for on-site training will implement the know-how and the knowledge that they have gained in their village/town/city. They will pass the knowledge on to the local bee keepers and co-ops. - Local and regional beekeeping methods will be documented. - The British and Dutch partners will include the documentation of traditional beekeeping methods in their trainings, thus spreading the traditional knowledge European-wide. - The dissemination work will increase awareness on the dire situation of pollinators and their importance, increasing the activities and projects targeting bees nationally and at the EU level. - Beekeepers, NGOs and policy makers, will be informed and educated through the web site and the Ecological Bee Conference in Turkey. This will lead to work on appropriate policy changes on banning certain pesticides and leaving parts of the farming land as pollinator habitat, as it increases the yields. All partners play a role in the ecological farming and beekeeping methods in their respective countries and will carry out the mission. - The international cooperation and network will help create lobbies for bee-friendly practices locally, nationally, and at the EU level.
Beekeeping is considered one of the most important agricultural activities around the world. Most of world’s flowering plants, including 80% of the world’s species of food plants, rely on pollinators for reproduction. There are clear indications of a loss of wild and domestic pollinators with a number of negative ecological and economic impacts. "Live and Let Bee: Training for Ecological Beekeeping" Project aimed an exchange of know-how, sharing best practices, providing trainings, dissemination of pollinator-friendly knowledge and creating awareness to tackle this problem. The project strived to reach out to both rural and urban populations, since the problem and the solution lie in both places. The project partners were: - Bugday Association for Supporting Ecological Living, Turkey: aims to protect and sustain traditional production methods, to create an ecological consciousness and sensitivity in daily life, on an individual level and in society as a whole, to offer solutions to the problems arising from the irreversible destruction of valuable ecological systems and to support living life in harmony with nature. - Smart Beeing Foundation, The Netherlands: is working on preservation and strengthening of the bee population in its natural habitat. - The Natural Beekeeping Trust, UK: aims to educate the public about bee-centred, chemical-free sustainable beekeeping methods and to develop new understandings and ways of relating to the bee that work with the natural behaviour of the creature. - Aronija, Association of Producers of Organic Products, Macedonia: aims to supply organic food which improves the health and the ability for active life; to contribute to protection of the environment and to socio-economic development. Main activities of the project were: - A select group of beekeepers, academicians and staff from the partner organisations visited the good practices in the 4 partner countries and had on-site trainings. The traditional beekeeping methods still being practiced especially in Macedonia and Turkey was documented with photographs, videos and in a written manner. This documentation is used in preparing the educational resources. - Educational resources were prepared for the following target groups: Beginners & Hobbyists, Beekeepers, Consumers & City Dwellers, Municipalities, Policy makers - A web site was designed and developed including the educational resources. - An Ecological Beekeeping Training was organised in Izmir, Turkey with the participation of 37 trainees from 4 partner countries. - An Ecological Beekeeping Conference was organised in Izmir, Turkey, to which 273 participants attended. Results of the project are: - Review and documentation of existing ecological beekeeping methods in videos, field trip reports, partner country reports - Educational resources on ecological beekeeping - Web site for Open Educational Resources - Ecological Beekeeping Training in Izmir, Turkey - Ecological Beekeeping Conference in Izmir, Turkey Impacts of the project are: - The beekeepers visiting other partner countries for on-site training learned about each others conditions,r their practices, how they coped with challenges. They gained new perspectives. Afterwards, some started new initiatives in their country (eg Bee School in Tangala Farm, Fethiye, Turkey), some reviewed and revised their practices and some started to disseminate what they have learned. - Beekeeping methods in partner countries are documented in reports, videos and photos. - British and Dutch partners (NBKT and Smart Beeing) have started organisation of an international beekeeping event, "Learning from the Bees", that will be held in the Netherlands in September 2018. - The dissemination activities carried out during the project significantly increased awareness of the situation of bees, their importance in nature and food chain, what can be done for the bees in partner countries. - Buğday Association got into contact with Pesticide Action Network (PAN) Europe through the project and starting collaborating with PAN regarding a a campaign to ban neonicotinoids, a kind of pesticide that has a high risk factor for the bees and other pollinators. Buğday recently became a member of PAN Europe and will work towards reducing pesticide use in Turkey. - The Ecological Beekeeping Training and Ecological Beekeeping Conference in Izmir, Turkey brought together various beekeepers and a wide range of other stakeholders together. The events were the first ones that focused on ecological beekeeping in Turkey. They helped creation of a network of beekeepers who work together to overcome local challenges, share information and learn from each other's practices.