APIdays 2016 : national awareness days for bees, environmental sentinels

© Government Communication Department / Charly Gallo

The 2016 APIdays event, organised by beekeepers from the Union Nationale de l’Apiculture Française (UNAF, French National Union of Beekeeping) in more than 80 towns and cities, was celebrated on Friday 17 June in Monaco. The event gave everyone an opportunity to come and find out about the critical role bees play in preserving plant biodiversity and in our environment more broadly. 

Pupils from Year 6 (CM2) at Cours Saint-Maur school watched honey being extracted from hives and attended awareness workshops on the key role played by bees in pollination at Espace Léo Ferré and on the Terrasses de Fontvieille. Each pupil went away with a small pot of “made in Monaco” honey. 

The partnership between Monaco and the “Bees, environmental sentinels” programme aims to attract public attention to the serious consequences of the disappearance of bees and encourage the protection of the species. Since 2011, when the Principality signed the programme’s Charter, the first hives have been set up on the roof terraces of the Museum of Philately and Coinage in Fontvieille.