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Plan to halt declining bee numbers

beeDefra and the Welsh Assembly Government have today published ‘Healthy Bees’, a ten year plan to protect and improve the health of honey bees in England and Wales.

The plan was drafted in consultation with beekeeping organisations. It aims to sustain honey bee populations by supporting beekeepers to minimise risk from pests and disease.

This follows an investment of an extra £4.3 million to gather information from beekeepers and research the health of bees, announced by Environment Secretary Hilary Benn in January. Of this, £2 million over five years will contribute to a new research programme on pollinators.

The first stage of the plan will attempt to identify and contact perhaps as many as 20,000 amateur beekeepers, to make sure that they are aware of the need to alert the National Bee Unit (NBU) to bee health problems and encourage them to register on BeeBase, its database of beekeepers. This will help ensure that new or existing health problems are identified.

The last two years have seen recorded losses of between 10 to 15 per cent in bee numbers although it is possible that real losses are significantly higher due to the number of beekeepers not in contact with the NBU.

Launching the plan today, Environment Minister Jane Kennedy said:

“Bees are just about the most hard working of insects. They help put food on our plates as they produce honey and pollinate other plants, many of which produce food themselves. We need to do all we can to safeguard the health of honey bees. This plan is a blueprint for doing that.

“The first step is to improve our contacts with all beekeepers so that we can ensure they take advantage of the free inspection and diagnostic services that the bee unit and its dedicated team of inspectors and scientists provide.

“That will help us pick up existing and emerging bee health problems and deal with them effectively.”

Further information

Page last modified: 22 May 2009 14:10
Page published: 9 March 2009 15:30