If the situation of the dark bee in France today is critical, the condition of other local bees in Europe is scarcely better. A coalition coordinated by POLLINIS, FEdCAN and SICAMM is urgently pursuing the legal protection of bee conservatories.

Associations, researchers, naturalists: we are several dozen who have signed the statement of principle for legal protection of local bee conservatories. Our coalition calls on the European Commission and the Member States to take urgent measures to protect these irreplaceable adaptation treasures.

The Gran Canaria beekeepers' association, ApiGranca, a member of the Save Local Bees coalition, got the local press to carry our message. Disseminating our demands and the urgency of the situation of local bees is essential to prevent their disappearance, especially that of the black canary bee, with its very specific characteristics. (Spanish article)

The Dark bee conservatory of Boutières, in Ardèche (France), presents us images of its wonderful local forager, the threats weighing on it, and calls for its protection: "preserving the current diversity, but not to freezing it", supports Lionel Garnery, specialist in dark bees at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). (in French)

In 2018, Paolo Fontana, our partner in this coalition, co-wrote with about thirty academics, naturalists and beekeepers this call to protect the biodiversity of the native subspecies of Apis mellifera in Italy.

In March 2018, on the initiative of POLLINIS and 43 other actors for the protection of local bees and at the request of European citizens, MEPs adopted a text supporting the need to preserve the precious qualities of these foragers, endemic to the different territories of the Union. Today, it is time for this initiative to be carried out in practice!

ApiGranca, association of beekeepers from the Canary island of Gran Canaria, member of our coalition #savelocalbees, were kind enough to translate our declaration of principle, already available in English and French, into Spanish. We thank them very much and make it available here, to share with all Spanish speakers.

(French only) In his column, Stéphane Foucart, a journalist working for the French newspaper Le Monde, highlights the inability of Member States of the European Union to coordinate their efforts to implement an effective policy to protect pollinators.

The researcher, Maria del Pilar de la Rua talks about the Iberian dark bee, the endemic honeybee of the Iberian peninsula, Apis mellifera iberiensis. Because of its evolution in this particular natural habitat, this subspecies is more adapted than the foreign ones imported into Spain. She warns us about importing other bees, because of a sanitary risk in addition to the hybridisation threat for Spanish local bees. (Spanish article)

The Canarian dark bee is one of the most studied subspecies of honeybees in Europe, but we don’t know yet exactly where it comes from. What researchers know is that it is the endemic bee of the Canarian Islands (Spain) and it is the best adapted to this natural habitat. But since the 80’s, it faces risks of hybridisation due to importation of foreign bees. (Spanish article)