World Bee Day 2019

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Dr Una FitzPatrick (right) and Prof Jane Stout (left) were invited by President Michael D. Higgins to visit Áras an Uachtaráin to mark World Bee Day and discuss the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan

 

Statement by President Michael D. Higgins marking World Bee Day 2019:

“On United Nations designated World Bee Day, we are reminded not only of the important part played in our inter-dependent world by bees and other pollinators and the need to promote sustainable farming practices and hedgerow management, but also of how we can all help by sustaining and providing a suitable environment for our bees.

“Humanity depends on pollinators. They are vital to the global food chain. Yet, we must acknowledge that our actions – including farming practices, urbanisation, land management, environmental pollution and the climate crisis – have placed our insect world in acute danger. 

“So today, let us use World Bee Day, and National Biodiversity Week, to increase and spread the knowledge and the awareness of the importance of the living world, and commit to specific action to ensure the survival of all of Ireland’s native bee and pollinator species.

As President of Ireland, may I thank all those who are already taking action, and who continue to work to conserve our environment in all its vital diversity, and may I express the hope that World Bee Day and National Biodiversity Week will inspire countless others to join them and discover how they, too, can be part of the urgent change that we must achieve for our generation and generations to come.” 

The President’s address at the National Biodiversity Conference is available at https://president.ie/en/diary/details/president-addresses-the-national-biodiversity-conference/speeches

 


 

To mark World Bee Day 2019, the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan partnered with the Irish Examiner to produce a 32-page booklet and A2 poster as well as a number of articles:

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Download Brochure as PDF

 

 

If you wish to receive a high resolution version of poster for printing, please email: [email protected]

 


 

Irish Examiner Immersive Read Feature:

We may like neat and tidy landscapes, but the bees are starving:

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Thanks to an inspirational conservation plan, Irish communities, businesses and individuals are taking action to save Ireland’s threatened bees…

For full article:

https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/special_reports/immersive-read-why-we-all-need-to-care-about-saving-irelands-starving-bees-914111.html

 


 

How employers can help to save our hardworking bees:

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Ireland’s threatened bee species can benefit from businesses large and small signing up for the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan, writes Ellie O’Byrne.

“I’m so happy to see them in my garden now, whereas years ago I’d have been swatting them away.”

Lisa Harlow is explaining how her awareness of pollinators, developed through volunteering at work, has impacted on her home life.

Ms Harlow, the external relations manager at Intel Ireland in Co Kildare, has been actively involved in supporting the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan at work, but now she says she’s bringing what she’s learned back and putting it into action in her own garden….

To read full article:

https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/views/analysis/how-employers-can-help-to-save-our-hard-working-bees-924834.html


 

Creating a buzz about Biodiversity will benefit all

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Kim McCall says he’s never been one for reading the instructions. He’s always farmed his own way, and his own way, he says, involves “working with nature and not against her”.

The Kildare farmer and his wife, Mireille, own a mixed livestock stock farm in Kilcullen, Co Kildare, where they have a herd of 150 pedigree Aubrac cattle, 80 sheep, and raise a small number of pigs in the summer.

However, Mr McCall doesn’t only manage his land for his four-legged livestock: he’s a fervent biodiversity enthusiast who also manages his land for Ireland’s threatened pollinators.

“Biodiversity is life. The more biodiversity you have, the more life you have,” says Mr McCall.

Now, he’s part of a new European Innovation project that the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan is starting with 40 farmers in Kildare, to highlight the vital role farmers play, as custodians of much of our countryside, in the fight to save Ireland’s threatened bee species.

To read full article:

https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/specialreports/creating-a-buzz-about-diversity-will-benefit-all-928527.html