Photo: Katja Kodba/Slovenian Press Agency
Slovenia is a world power in beekeeping
The President of the Republic of Slovenia, Nataša Pirc Musar, attended the ceremony marking 150 years of organised beekeeping in Slovenia and emphasised in her speech that the beekeeping holiday is a symbol of Slovenian identity, as Slovenia is a country of beekeepers. We have the highest number of beekeepers per capita in the world and the native Carniolan honey bee, which has exceptional qualities such as tranquillity, industriousness and longevity. It is precisely this Slovenian tradition and the symbolism of bees and beekeeping that led to the Slovenian initiative for a World Bee Day, proclaimed by the United Nations five years ago.
Ljubljana, 30 Sep 2023
News
"I am proud to say that Slovenia is a beekeeping superpower. We are the first country in the world to include beekeeping as a way of life on UNESCO’s List of Intangible Cultural Heritage," said the Slovenian President.
Over the past five years, World Bee Day has contributed significantly to raising awareness of the importance of bees and other pollinators and to promoting international cooperation to protect them. During this time, thousands of actions have taken place worldwide, and at the initiative of the Slovenian Beekeepers’ Association, the Slovenian Honey Breakfast was launched, which is promoted every year in Slovenia and through Slovenian diplomacy also around the world. Back in the spring, President Pirc Musar presented the Golden Bee Award to a young Serbian scientist, the third winner of this international prize.
The Slovenian President pointed out that she was particularly proud of the knowledge developed in Slovenia on beekeeping for persons with disabilities, including the adaptation of apiaries and the Beekeeping Manual for Persons with Disabilities. Recently, we have also started to successfully implement beekeeping projects for persons with disabilities abroad, as beekeeping has a unique potential to reduce social and environmental vulnerability.
We live in a time of triple planetary crisis – climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution – that threatens the survival of humanity. Food security, to which the President is paying particular attention, is closely related to this, and in just over a month’s time, the Second Presidential Forum will be dedicated to this issue. Bees and other pollinators are of key importance to global food security. They are also essential to the global health of ecosystems, because almost 90% of wild plant species depend on them for reproduction.
In her speech, President Pirc Musar also mentioned the father of Slovenian beekeeping, Anton Janša, and Johannes Antonius Scopoli, the 300th anniversary of whose birth is being celebrated this year, who was also active in Janša’s time and described beekeeping in Carniola in his Discourse on Bees.
- Keynote Speech by the President of the Republic of Slovenia at the ceremony marking marking 150 years of organised beekeeping in Slovenia (MicrosoftWord). (DOCX, 186 kB)
- Keynote Speech by the President of the Republic of Slovenia at the ceremony marking marking 150 years of organised beekeeping in Slovenia (PDF). (PDF, 474 kB)
