Wednesday the 20th is World Bee Day. Bees are celebrated around the world to remind people how important they are for man- and womankind because honeybees provide us with honey but above all because bees pollinate more than 80% of wild plants and contribute to the preservation of biodiversity.
This date was chosen this year by the European Commission to publish the Farm-to-Fork as well as the Biodiversity Strategy. Both documents are meant to lead the EU to a recovery of biodiversity while producing food in a clean and affordable way
World Bee Day - Publication of the Farm to Fork and Biodiversity Strategy
Decades of EU and national financial support to protect biodiversity (Natura2000, Life projects) were ruined by parallel subsidies to intensive agriculture (Common Agricultural Policy) that kept destroying nature. The European Green Deal gives us the opportunity to fix this problem and we need to have our voice heard and push politicians to take ambitious actions!
One of the flagship measures that have been put forward since the beginning is the definition of clear and mandatory pesticide reduction targets. But the agribusiness sector has been very active to water down the initial good intentions, amongst other things by suppressing pesticide reduction targets in the documents.
After some pressure on decision makers (by many organisations, including our ECI partners), the latest leaked version of the biodiversity strategy indicates an objective of reducing pesticide use by 50% by 2030. On the one hand this is good news, considering reduction targets were initially completely cancelled from previous drafts. On the other hand, scientists tell us that the way to protect and restore biodiversity is not a 50% reduction: it is a 100% reduction, transforming our agriculture towards agroecology.
The World Bee Day is an important opportunity to remind all society that bees and the rest of living organisms need our help more than ever: we need a complete phase out of pesticides to restore biodiversity.
The protection of biodiversity must be one of the bases of the reconstruction of our economies after the coronavirus crisis! Please sign the ECI, post regularly on social media and send e-mails to your relatives, friends and colleagues asking to sign in order to push the European Commission to be more ambitious and stop the fatal decline of bees and other pollinators!
Thanks for your great support.