Joint Effort for Honey Bee Conservation and Selection - BeeConSel

About this project

<p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 14px"><strong>Honey bees have been challenged with severe changes in their natural environment</strong> due to monocultures, increased use of pesticides, climate change and pollution. Pressure is reflected in lower disease tolerance altered behaviour and colony loss, which also affect beekeepers. The <strong>beekeepers compensate colony losses by introducing new ones</strong>, often with queens of unproven quality and/or pedigree. Also, the desire to improve the colony management or yield prompts beekeepers to look for best-buy genetic material with traits that match their needs.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 14px">With our project, we wish <strong>to improve the situation</strong> in the project beneficiary countries: <strong>Slovenia, Croatia and North Macedonia</strong>, where the implementation of mating control has been neglected and thus results of the selection effort were watered-down. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 14px">By <strong>adapting the knowledge and experience of the donor partner from Norway</strong> and the <strong>use of novel research supported by the expert partner from Sweden</strong>, we will establish <strong>tailor-made effective mating control systems</strong>, adjusted to the local environmental conditions. Our results will be presented to end-users and policymakers in the beneficiary countries to improve the current conservation status of selected bee subspecies.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 14px">To ensure the&nbsp;sustainability&nbsp;of the project, <strong>clear protocols, legal recommendations and revision of breeding programmes</strong> will be prepared. Use of the recommendations by all queen breeders will be promoted through training and dissemination of the project results.</span></span></p>

Bilateral cooperation results

As the partners realised that common challenges exist and that the required knowledge was lacking in their countries they approached the donor partner and invited the Norwegian Beekeepers Association (NBA) to teach them. The NBA was key to developing the project proposal and implementing the project. Dr Dahle (NBA) first described the Norwegian best practises and led the discussion on which could be transferred to countries of the project and which could be adopted. This led to a successful project application. As part of the project, NBA organised workshops for both project partners and stakeholders. Partners jointly developed several field practises and identified sites/methods that have led to successful outcomes. The consortiants jointly published several scientific papers and carried out dissemination activities. The knowledge transfer within the BeeConSel project was two-way, as the NBA participated in a number of experiments that also shed light on the situation in Norway. Last but not least, the partners performed an analyses of the existing legislation in the donor and recipient countries and proposed several changes on both sides.

Project partners

• Centre for applied life sciences Healthy food chain Ltd. Donor project partner· Croatia
• Company for Applied Research and Permanent Education in Agriculture Donor project partner· Republic of Macedonia
• Norwegian Beekeepers Association Donor project partner· Norway
• Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences Donor project partner· Sweden