Intensive chemically based agriculture is recognised as one of the main factors contributing honeybees mortality and colony collapse disorder (CDD) in the Mediterranean basin. Furthermore, intensive agriculture often involves a maximum utilization of land surface and the removal of non-crop areas such as surrounding vegetation and weeds. The consecuence is a drastic drop in the number of native plants surviving withing agroecosystems and in the availabity of meliferous flowers. All that transforms these agroecosystems on particularly difficult environments for honeybees.
The aim of this project is to design and promote sustainable agroecosystems that contain native Mediterranean meliferous plants in and around field crops (hedges, cover crops…) and support the preservation of honeybees. That is, create a synergic association between sustainable agriculture and apiculture (or farmers and beekeepers) in the Mediterranean basin territories to achieve mutual benefits for both sectors and for the nature conservation.
The project focuses on the enhancement and promotion of sustainable farming practices based on the conservation of native plants within Mediterranean agroecosystems and, at the same time, on giving Mediterranean honeybee productions added value through the promotion of differentiated quality honey.
A second objective is to identify the main honeybee subspecies or “ecotypes” employed in each participant region, the factors that can affect their health status and the honey production and the native meliferous plants that could be used as ecological infrastructures in these agroecosystems.
To achieve these targets AGROECOBEE will join multidisciplinary laboratory and field research, experienced farmers, beekeepers and other actors involved to create transnational euro-Mediterranean networks.