[Pollinator] PUERTO RICO & US VIRGIN ISLANDS BEE RESCUE CAMPAIGN

Fri Oct 27 12:57:38 PDT 2017

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*Help Save The Bees of the Caribbean!*

*Please help the pollinators on Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands
today.  GoFundMe link to Fund for Puerto Rico’s Pollinators:*

*https://www.gofundme.com/fund-for-puerto-rico039s-pollinators
<https://www.gofundme.com/fund-for-puerto-rico039s-pollinators> *

DOUBLE YOUR CONTRIBUTION!  BLUE DIAMOND GROWERS HAS GENEROUSLY PLEDGED TO
MATCH THE NEXT $5,000 IN DONATIONS.

Our growing campaign is taking action to help pollinators on the Caribbean
islands recover.  *We are pleased to report that the first relief supplies
have already reached the islands and are being distributed to beekeepers! *But
we need your help to achieve our goals.

*This Campaign seeks to:*

1.       Provide immediate relief and support for PR and USVI beekeepers.

2.       Raise funds and deliver supplemental protein for 3,000 hives and
1,000 replacement hives over the next six months while the ecosystems and
floral resources recover.

3.       Help strengthen beekeeping and pollination services on the islands.

4.       Assess the impacts of the hurricanes on the islands’ other
pollinating species to determine how help can be provided.

*BACKGROUND*

Hurricanes have devastated Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands (USVI),
crippling infrastructure, along with access to electricity, water, and
other basic necessities.   Agriculture was decimated, too.  Cropland,
family farms, and food systems were largely destroyed, and nearly $780
million in crop losses have been recorded so far on Puerto Rico alone.

*Bees on Puerto Rico and the USVI have been hit just as hard.*

The islands’ beekeepers are essential to local agriculture and specialty
crops on the islands.  On Puerto Rico, fewer than 150 beekeepers provide 7%
of the honey consumed on the island, and these men and women maintain an
estimated 4,000 domestic hives.  On the USVI about a dozen beekeepers
manage about 800 hives.  From pineapples to coffee to countless fruits and
vegetables, honeybees and other pollinators are the key to the recovery of
agriculture on the islands.

*Surviving bees are in danger of starving.  *

Recent hurricanes stripped the islands of their floral resources,
effectively denying that critical nutritional resource to these "natural
farmers."

Beekeepers are trying to keep their bees alive in the short term by
providing sugar water; but without a floral resource to provide essential
proteins through pollen, surviving colonies are at risk of collapsing.
Commercially produced protein sources used by beekeepers in the continental
U.S. are unavailable on the islands.

The hurricanes not only resulted in colony losses of up to 80% but also
destroyed most of the Langstroth wooden hives used by beekeepers to house
their bees.  Bees that survived the destruction of their hives have
swarmed, taking up residence in people’s homes and other structures,
creating health and safety concerns.

Beekeepers are working hard to recover, but are in desperate need of our
help to secure supplemental protein sources and replacement Langstroth
hives to house their bees.

*For additional information, contact Val Dolcini at vdolcini at pollinator.org
<vdolcini at pollinator.org> or Tom Van Arsdall at tva at pollinator.org
<tva at pollinator.org>.*

https://www.gofundme.com/fund-for-puerto-rico039s-pollinators

Thank you!

Kelly Rourke

Program Coordinator

Pollinator Partnership

423 Washington Street, 5th Floor

San Francisco, CA 94111

e:  kr at pollinator.org

w:  www.pollinator.org

p:  415.362.1137

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