The United Nations proclaimed 20 May as the ‘World Bee Day’ in December 2017, with the purpose to acknowledge the role of bees and other pollinators for the ecosystem. The MedBEESinessHubs project honored the Bee in this year’s World Bee Day celebrations through a series of activities, ranging from the ‘BEE engaged – Did you know?’ social media campaign which run the whole week of 16-22 May 2022, and the organization of two public events.

“It is time for everyone to listen to bees, in particular, leaders and decision-makers”, Boštjan Noč, author of the World Bee Day initiative. It is for this reason that the MedBEESinessHubs project partners gathered stakeholders from the regions of Cyprus, Egypt, Italy, Lebanon and Palestine in a round-table discussion to discuss the importance of Bees for the environment, the economy, the support of local communities and the sustainable development of rural areas. Our aim is to showcase the Bee-economy concept and how the creation of a bee-sensitive and bee-dependent ecosystem is a win-win situation for all. Stakeholders across these five Mediterranean regions, ranging from beekeepers’ associations to rural development agencies, ministries of agriculture, environment and tourism, joined the discussion in the form of a hybrid event, held in English with subtitles in Arabic, on Wednesday 18th May 2022. The presentations given during this event can be found here.

On a similar note, the MedBEESinessHubs project partners from Cyprus (Cyprus Chamber of Commerce & Industry, and Filagro Group Ltd) in collaboration with one of the MedBEESinessHubs Associated Partners, the Pancyprian Beekeepers Association, will co-organize on Saturday 21st May 2022 an open discussion with beekeepers in an effort to listen to their ideas, suggestions, possible problems they face, and transfer these to relevant policy makers for the formulation of national and/or regional policies on Apiculture. At the same time, the MedBEESinessHubs project was presented inviting beekeepers to ‘Bee engaged’ and join the project activities.

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