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<H1 class=story id=headline>Fewer Honey Bee Colonies and Beekeepers Throughout
Europe</H1>
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<P id=first><SPAN class=date>ScienceDaily (Jan. 28, 2010)</SPAN> — The number of
bee colonies in Central Europe has decreased over recent decades. In fact, the
number of beekeepers has been declining in the whole of Europe since 1985. This
is the result of a study that has now been published by the International Bee
Research Association, which for the first time has provided an overview of the
problem of bee colony decline at the European level.</P>
<P>Until now there had only been the reports from individual countries
available. As other pollinators such as wild bees and hoverflies are also in
decline, this could be a potential danger for pollinator services, on which many
arable crops depend, according to what an international team of scientists have
written in a special edition of the <EM>Journal of Apicultural
Research</EM>.</P>
<P>In their investigation the researchers analysed data that was available from
national beekeeper magazines and national reports, in order to calculate the
total number of bee colonies and beekeepers. In this way the number of bee
colonies between 1965 and 1985 could be reconstructed for 14 European countries
and for 18 European countries between 1985 and 2005. The compilation provides us
with a preliminary overview of the situation in Europe. It is not complete
however, since for example France, Spain and some Eastern European EU countries
are missing from it, as no suitable data could be procured for them. While in
Europe and the USA the number of bee colonies has declined, the number on a
worldwide scale is thought to have increased by approximately 45 percent over
the last 50 years according to a 2009 report from the Food and Agricultural
Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Unfortunately however this finding is
of little use to the agrarian economy in Europe and the USA, for although honey
can be imported as a product of the bees, this is not the case for the service
provided by the bees -- namely pollination.</P>
<P>According to the analysis, the number of bee colonies has already been on the
decline in Central and Western Europe since 1965. Since 1985 this trend has also
become apparent in countries such as the Czech Republic, Norway, the Slovak
Republic and Sweden. By comparison, in the South of Europe (Greece, Italy and
Portugal) the number of bee colonies increased between 1965 and 2005. In
contrast however, the number of beekeepers decreased in all of the countries
that were investigated.</P>
<P>Scientists assume the cause for this to be the social and economic changes
over recent decades. Rising incomes of the rural population made other
sugar-based products affordable, the replacement of jobs by machines in
agriculture speeded up the rural exodus to urban regions and thus beekeeping as
a hobby lost its attractiveness. "The price of treating bee diseases has
increased to the extent that the cost of treatments may equal or exceed the
income from a colony for an entire year, thus making it uneconomic to keep bees
on a small scale," explains Dr. Simon G. Potts of the University of Reading in
England. "Moreover, the effort for treating disease, in particular V.
destructor, has probably also reduced the attractiveness of beekeeping as a
hobby."</P>
<P>Through the investigation, the mystery of bee losses has by no means been
solved, emphasize the scientists, who were however able to add another piece to
the puzzle. Furthermore, the data would have to be interpreted very carefully
because of the very different evaluation methods in individual countries. "With
the limited evidence available it is neither possible to identify the actual
driver of honey bee losses in Europe nor to give a complete answer on the trends
for colonies and beekeepers. This obviously creates an urgent demand for a
standardization of evaluation methods, especially on colony numbers. Such
harmonized reliable methods will be the obvious backbone for any research to
understand and mitigate honey bee colony losses," adds Dr. Josef Settele from
the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ).</P>
<P>The loss of pollinators such as bees, bumble bees and butterflies is one of
the four pillars of the EU project ALARM. ALARM stands for "Assessing Large
scale environmental Risks for biodiversity with tested Methods" and was the
largest research project of the European Union in the field of biodiversity.</P>
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<P><STRONG>Story Source:</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>Adapted from materials provided by <A class=blue href="http://www.helmholtz.de/" target=_blank rel=nofollow><SPAN id=source>Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres</SPAN></A>, via <A href="http://www.eurekalert.org/" target=_blank rel=nofollow>EurekAlert!</A>,
a service of AAAS.</BLOCKQUOTE></DIV></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT lang=0 face="Gill Sans MT" size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR>Laurie Davies Adams<BR>Executive
Director<BR><B>Pollinator Partnership </B><BR>423 Washington Street, 5th
floor<BR>San Francisco, CA
94111<BR>415-362-1137<BR>LDA@pollinator.org</FONT><FONT lang=0 face=Arial color=#000000 size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"><BR><BR></FONT><FONT lang=0 face="Gill Sans MT" color=#0000ff size=4 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="14"><B><A href="http://www.pollinator.org/">www.pollinator.org</A></B></FONT><FONT lang=0 face="Gill Sans MT" color=#000000 size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"></B><BR><A href="http://www.nappc.org/">www.nappc.org</A><BR><BR></FONT><FONT lang=0 face="Gill Sans MT" color=#000000 size=3 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="12"><B><I>National Pollinator Week is June 21-27, 2010. <BR>Beecome
involved at <A href="http://www.pollinator.org/">www.pollinator.org</A></I></FONT></B></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>