4:20pm Friday 24th July 2009
Rural Affairs Minister Elin Jones visited the Welsh Beekeepers’ Association (WBKA) stand at the Royal Welsh Show as part of her ongoing commitment to help protect and improve the health of honey bees and to sustaining and supporting beekeeping in Wales.
The minister met with the WBKA earlier this month to discuss a number of significant initiatives launched recently relating to bee health, including: · The Healthy bees plan – a joint Welsh Assembly Government and DEFRA document which aims to address the challenges facing beekeepers and is aimed at sustaining the health of honey bees and beekeeping in England and Wales over the next decade.
· An increase of funding for the National Bee Unit to enhance the current bee health programme. In May 2009, the Welsh Assembly Government announced £486,000, roughly double the previous years’ allocation.
· The Insect Pollinator Initiative, a 10 million research programme to help to identify the main threats to bees and other insect pollinators. The funding was announced in April 2009 by DEFRA, who hold the research and development budget for Wales and England.
Elin Jones said: “Honeybees and other pollinators are vital for local food production, which is key to the environmentally sustainable farming we are promoting in Wales.
“Several initiatives are underway to tackle the decline in the bee population and working together will be the key to achieving the objectives of these projects. I am keen to establish how we can compliment the work of the WBKA and also how the WBKA can support us in our policy development of bee health in Wales.”
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