The Apimondia Executive Council has held a number of emergency Executive Council Meetings since the Russian invasion of Ukraine with the sole agenda of discussing the developments in Russia given the fact that our 47th Apimondia Congress was scheduled to be hosted in 6 months in Ufa, Russia. The Executive Council unanimously agreed to cancel the 47th Apimondia Congress in Russia given the terrible events the world is witnessing.

The Executive have now carefully worked through all aspects involved with unwinding such a major complex global event and have now resolved to find a new venue in Europe to allow a congress to continue in 2022 given the fact that the last Apimondia event was held in 2019 (Montreal, Canada).

The event will now be held in Istanbul Turkey between 24th & 28th August with a theme “Bees Unite the World”. This event will be a hybrid event where some sessions will be live streamed to registered delegates all around the world making the scientific sessions accessible to beekeepers despite the logistical challenges of global travel in the present environment.

The website is now live and taking registrations: www.apimondia2021.com

Our thoughts are with Ukrainian Beekeepers

Many will remember the hospitality of the Ukrainian beekeepers when the congress was held in Kiev in 2013. Apimondia has been in correspondence with our Ukrainian beekeeping friends and we are moving to set up a mechanism to collect donations to support the people and Ukrainian beekeepers. At this stage support can be directed to Bees for Development, a registered charity who Apimondia previously worked with to direct donations to the African region after the big earthquake in Haiti.

We are also aware that some European beekeepers are registering with their own countries’ governments to welcome Ukrainian refugees in their own homes and farms during these very difficult times.

Apimondia Congress 2023 – Santiago Chile

The Apimondia Executive Council continues to work with the Chilean beekeepers and the South American region in planning the 2023 congress in Chile. The local organising team are working to bring together a congress that showcases beekeeping in their region and highlights the unique aspects of their culture, products and beekeeping practices.

Joint Planning for the global World Bee Day Celebrations

Global World Bee Day celebrations centre around joint activities between Apimondia and FAO. FAO is a specialised agency of the United Nations whose mission it is to lead international efforts to defeat hunger and improve nutrition and food security.

World Bee Day allows for Apimondia and FAO to work together on the topic of bees and to utilise the networks and strengths of both organisations for the betterment of beekeeping and agriculture worldwide through both FAO’s and Apimondia’s objectives. In past years important declarations and documents have been

forthcoming from government representatives in attendance. In a virtual world plans will take into account the ability for the event to be live streamed around the world.

Apimondia / FAO Collaborations – Two Joint Publications:

How Beekeeping Contributes to achieving the Sustainable Development Goal

The Apimondia Executive worked in collaboration with FAO to jointly publish a global summary of how beekeeping contributes to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals with each of the Apimondia Executive acting as contributing authors to the publication. The publication states that “beekeeping is an activity that can have an impact on all the 17 SDGs in consideration of the possibility it offers to improve food production systems from the most subsistence production methods to the highly developed technological advanced systems. It can do so without creating pollution or waste. It has a positive impact on biodiversity. Beekeeping brings people together and Apimondia assists in the global dissemination of knowledge about all 17 goals.”

I have now received a small number of hard copies of this publication. If any Association in our region wishes to receive a copy for their library or archive, please contact me and I can pass the limited hard copies amongst those who are interested.

Good Beekeeping Practices for Sustainable Apiculture

This latest Apimondia FAO collaborative publication is available from https://www.apimondia.org/latest/good-beekeeping-practices-for-sustainable-apiculture. In particular the Apimondia Working Group on Honey Adulteration, along with the wider Executive Council worked extensively with FAO to ensure that the guidelines were consistent with the Apimondia Statement on Honey Fraud and that good beekeeping practices were aligned to produce high-quality safe products from the hive. Many voluntary hours of proofreading, writing and fact checking were contributed by the members of the Apimondia Executive.

Two other key Apimondia / FAO projects continue

1. Apimondia are working with FAO to deliver four Biodiversity workshops aimed at linking regional government officials, farmers and beekeeper pollinators. The workshops will be held in Latin America, Ghana, Philippines and North Africa. The objectives of the workshops are to help provide good agricultural practice examples which support biodiversity and pollinator health in agricultural landscapes. This is an example of Apimondia being at the table to provide expert technical information to improve agricultural landscapes for bees and beekeepers.
2. The second project involves linking a working group from Apimondia with FAO Animal Production Officers through the development of a joint working group on “Monitoring the genetic diversity of managed bees for food and agriculture”. FAO manages a system to monitor the genetic diversity of the main livestock breeds and has recently added bees to this work. This project will slowly begin to monitor the subspecies of bees to better be able to understand bee population trends to assist better decision making globally. It is envisaged that there will be a trial data collection in up to six countries with the view to then rolling out to all countries. Apimondia is assisting the FAO Livestock Officers to work through mechanisms available for data collection options, challenges and opportunities.

New Apimondia Website

Apimondia is pleased to now have on board a Communications Officer who has done a splendid job of building a new website and who is now working to support the volunteer efforts that bring newsletters and events to beekeepers globally. Take the time to look at the new Apimondia website when you have a chance.

https://www.apimondia.org/

Stay safe and well everyone.

Jodie Goldsworthy – Apimondia Oceania President