INITIATIVE CAME FROM SLOVENIA
WORLD BEE DAY
People have long been well aware that without bees there would be no life on our planet. We give them the credit for providing food, their help is essential for building sustainable agriculture and biodiversity, environment preservation is not possible without them. By learning to protect bees, we can contribute to the reduction of poverty and hunger in the long term and to the preservation of a healthy environment and biodiversity. Slovenes are a nation of beekeepers: approximately one in two hundred Slovenes is a beekeeper. Apiculture is an important agricultural activity with a long and rich tradition.
The Beekeepers’ Association of Slovenia wanted the world to really understand and appreciate the importance of bees to humanity. Since 2014, the Association strove for the declaration of World Bee Day.
2017, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a resolution declaring 20 May of each year as World Bee Day. Since then, 20 May has been dedicated to activities that draw attention to the importance of bee conservation and the importance of bees for human survival. Data from the UN show that as much as a third of all food produced in the world depends on pollination. Bees are responsible for the fact that a third of all plants that mankind uses for food bear fruit.
“Where bees are at home” – Exhibition on beekeeping at the Slovene Ethnographic Museum, 2018–2019
Slovene initiative proposed that World Bee Day be celebrated in May, when bees in the northern hemisphere are most active and begin to reproduce and the need for pollination is greatest. In the southern hemisphere, it is autumn, the time to harvest the bee crop. 20 May also marks the birth of Anton Janša, the pioneer of modern beekeeping. In his time, he was one of the greatest experts and the first teacher of modern apiculture in the world (Empress Maria Theresia appointed him a permanent teacher at the new beekeeping school in Vienna).
World Bee Day is also gratefully celebrated at our company. On this day, we appreciate the privilege we have of nature allowing us to use one of its greatest treasures – honey. Our Vivamel wound dressings with medical chestnut honey prove that even in a demanding field such as medicine, using ancient knowledge on natural resources helps achieve top results.