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Dear Native Bee Supporter,
The following is from POLLINIS – a very active group based in France who are campaigning for Native/Local honey bees.
This is very important news for our bees especially in the wake of the recent research results confirming the genetic purity and uniqueness of the Irish Native Honey Bee – Apis mellifera mellifera.
So please read the message below and do contact your MEPs for their support.
Regards, Loretta
email: nihbs.pro@gmail.com
Last month signatures of 40 associations and scientists from all over Europe were presented to the MEPs in order to encourage them to vote in favor of the amendments asking for the protection of local European bees in the apiculture report of the AGRI Committee. The final text voted by the MEPs and adopted almost unanimously (38+, 1-) on January 23 recognises:
“the necessity to preserve the extraordinary genetic inheritance, the diversity and the capacity of adaptation of the local populations and endemic to bees”.
However, POLLINIS is disappointed that the final text does not include the amendment referring to the need for a legal protection of local bees :
” Calls on the European Commission and Member States to put in place measures to increase legal protection and financial support for local honey bee ecotypes and populations throughout the European Union, including by way of legally protected locally endemic honey bee conservation areas ”.
In the coming days we will do our best to reintroduce this amendment before 21 February so it can be put to the vote at the plenary meeting of the European Parliament that will take place March 1rst.
In order for this to happen, we need to gather the signatures of 76 MEPs so that the amendment can be discussed at this meeting and the legal protection has a chance to finally emerge.
➡ It is absolutely necessary to contact your MEPs so that they commit to sign for the reintroduction of this amendment, this is the only possible way to finally recognize and protect your work!
The stakes are high and the time you devote to this task will be rewarded you a hundredfold in the field! Set off some time to the task, share the work between you, divide it in several chunks if necessary, but please, do it, it is vital to obtain a permanent protection of local bees!
1. Send the following email: http://www.pollinis.org/mail-european-members-reintroduce-amendment-legal-protection-black-bees/
2. Do not hesitate to call your MEPs, their contact details are made available for this purpose and they don’t always read their emails. It will encourage them to give their consent right away. Time is pressing! You will find each MEP’s contact details in the right column of their profile on the following website simply choose your country: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/ireland/en/your-meps
3. When one MEP agrees to sign for the reintroduction of the amendment, simply provide us with his name.
We will arrange for the document to circulate within the Parliament in order for it to be signed by each MEP giving his approval.
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to write to us at advocacy@pollinis.org
We thank you for your participation in what could become a historical event in the defence of local bees everywhere in Europe!
Yours,
Nicolas Laarman, general delegate of POLLINIS.
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