Beekepers work at "adopted city beehives". (source: SITA)
EXPERTS warn that bees in the wild are on the decline, and so environmentalists want to contribute to their preservation by having members of public adopt them. Individuals, and also companies in Slovakia, are able to adopt a larva, a worker-bee, a queen-bee, a whole beehive or a bee-keeper.
The Živica (meaning Resin) association in collaboration with the Greenpeace Slovensko organisation has launched the project Adopt a Bee / Adoptuj si včelu which aims at contributing to saving the bee population in Slovakia by setting up beehives.
“In the last 10 years, the number of bee colonies in Slovakia has declined by 30 percent,” coordinator of the bee-saving campaign Miriam Rajterová from Greenpeace Slovensko told the TASR newswire. “The real bee killers are pesticides used in agriculture. They are also threatened by extreme weather changes and lack of diverse and natural food.”
Rajtárová also pointed out that one-third of our normal menu depends on pollination of plants by insects. She explained that the associations plan to procure money to put up 10 beehives in five Slovak cities; so far, they calculate with Zvolen and Žilina, they want to complete them next spring. They need €26,000 for the project. People can contribute symbolically to the financing, from one euro for a bee larva to €250 for adopting a whole beehive. A bee-keeper can be adopted for €100. The collected money will also be used, apart from buying the bee colonies and equipment, for the salary for a bee-keeper or medicaments for bees.
Petra Ježeková of Živica explained why cities are more suitable than the countryside: “Cities and towns have a richer offer on blooming plants than the rural environment, which can be – with its mono-cultures and pesticide crop-spraying much more dangerous for bees.”
This year, Živica has already successfully put up three public beehives, in Bratislava and Zvolen. One of them is in the capital, on the roof of the Old Market Hall, while the other one is in the water-company community garden. The one in Zvolen is on the roof of the National Forestry Centre. More information can be found at adoptujsivcelu.sk.
