UNESCO x Guerlain Women for Bees webinar: Learning from beekeepers in biosphere reserves

UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme and Guerlain are cooperating to train and support 50 women beekeepers within the World Network of Biosphere Reserves to maintain and develop their know-how in 25 biosphere reserves. This five-year programme is part of the partnership initiated between UNESCO-MAB and LVMH. The objectives of the MAB Programme which celebrate its 50th anniversary this year, are to reconcile conservation of biodiversity with its sustainable use and promote sustainable practices that combine ecological, social and economic dimensions.
Watch the webinar live on this page on 20 May 2021 at 10 am UTC (noon in France, GMT+2) or on demand after the event.

The partnership between UNESCO-MAB and Guerlain focuses on three main areas:

• the cross-training of women beekeepers in biosphere reserves sharing their knowledge and practices,
• the creation of a network of women beekeepers supported scientifically and technically to ensure sustainable and economically beneficial beekeeping activities, and
• the analysis and measurement of the benefits of pollination for local ecosystems.

This five-year programme with Guerlain is being developed jointly with MAB National Committees, local biosphere reserve managers and communities. The programme also entails a cooperation with the International Pollinators Initiative (joint Convention on Biological Diversity-FAO initiative)  as well as with the European Commission (Directorate-General Environment) to coordinate existing efforts regarding beekeeping.

The UNESCO x Guerlain Women for Bees programme focuses specifically on local practices in biosphere reserves. By doing so it prevents the importing of bee colonies or queens from outside to biosphere reserves (for instance, colonies of Western honeybees) and also the promotion of very large apiaries, which may present a risk of outcompeting other native species of bees and wild pollinators as well as an increasing risk of spreading diseases.

On this World Bee Day, a webinar presents the values and approach of UNESCO-MAB Programme for reconciling human beings with the rest of the living.  

Feasibility surveys have been carried out in 3 biosphere reserves (Tonle Sap in Cambodia, Xishuangbanna in China, and Kafa in Ethiopia). The webinar brings forward Ms. Xiaoyue Li, the researcher who carried out this survey in Xishuangbanna Biosphere Reserve in China. She addresses  questions on beekeeping practices with local breeds and species of bees, the status and trends of native bee populations and the impacts of climate change on bee production, but also on the opportunities and challenges the Women for Bees programme can bring in the biosphere reserve, in particular with regard to bees and pollinator conservation.  

The researcher is interacting with two Slovenian beekeepers from the Kozjansko & Obsotelje Biosphere Reserve, Ms. Patricija Vrenko and Ms. Ivana Kovačević, who are part of the UNESCO network of women beekeepers. Ms Vrenko and Ms Kovačević share their local experience and perspectives as well as expectations on the programme. Ms. Hien T. Ngo from FAO and previously Head of the Technical Support Unit for the IPBES Pollination and Pollinators assessment is sharing her views on the issues raised.

Key questions addressed in the webinar include:  

Why is pollination important? What is the role of bees in pollination? How can the Women for Bees programme help face challenges related to pollinator decline?  How are beekeeping practices inserted in a larger landscape approach? How do local communities perceive climate change impacts on production? What is the role of women in beekeeping? How could the development of bee activities also benefit the conservation of native honeybee populations?

• Video message by Shamila Nair-Bedouelle
  
  UNESCO Assistant Director-General Sciences

• Welcome words by H. E. Ms Metka Ipavic
  
  Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Slovenia to France, Permanent Delegate
• Message from Cécile Lochard
  
  Chief Sustainability Officer, Guerlain
• Why is pollination important?
  
  Hien T. Ngo, FAO
• Perspectives of beekeepers from Kozjansko & Obsotelje Biosphere Reserve, Slovenia
  
  Patrcija Vrenko and Ivana Kovačević
• Overview of beekeeping practices in Xishuangbanna Biosphere Reserve, China
  
  Xiaoyue Li

• Women for bees
• Poland and Belarus tree beekeeping culture as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity
• EU Pollinator Park
• EU Pollinator Information Hive
• FAO World Bee Day celebration

 
Photo: Xishuangbanna Biosphere Reserve, China. ©  Xiaoyue Li