Number of bee colonies has risen 50% in a decade in Poland

The number of bee colonies in Poland has risen by 54% over the last decade to reach two million thanks in part to the country’s National Programme for Supporting Apiculture, reports the National Support Centre for Agriculture (KOWR), a government agency.

The value of bees to Poland as pollinators is estimated at around 5 billion zloty (€1.1 billion), KOWR’s deputy director, Marcin Wroński, told the Polish Press Agency (PAP). He notes that bees help ensure food security as well as preserving ecosystems and biodiversity.

Modern agricultural practices, climate change and the global trade in bees have caused bee diversity to decline worldwide, with colonies of bees disappearing in a number of countries, raising fears over the global food supply.

The sixth edition of Poland’s beekeeping support programme is currently being implemented in Poland. Its budget amounts to around €33 million (151 million zloty) over the period 2020-22, with half the funds coming from the European Union and a half from the national budget, reports PAP.

Around 5,300 projects relating to beekeeping worth approximately 349 million zloty (€76 million) were implemented in Poland from its accession to the EU in 2004 to to the end of 2021, says Wroński. Around 40,000 beekeepers are supported annually, mainly at family farms.

“The multi-generational experience and professional craftsmanship of Polish beekeepers mean that the honey produced in Poland is of high quality,” explains Wroński.

Data from beekeeping organisations shows that in the period from 2017 to 2021, bee honey production in Poland ranged from around 13,000 tonnes to over 22,000 tonnes a year, PAP reports.

Worldwide, pollinator biodiversity is facing a number of challenges due to globalisation, climate change and the use of chemicals and pesticides in farming.

Colonies of bees have been disappearing in recent years with billions of honey bees across the world leaving their hives, never to return, notes National Geographic. In some regions, the decline in bee counts has reached 90%.

Since the 1990s, “a large acceleration in land-use transformation worldwide…compounded with climate change and international bee trade and consequent pathogen introduction represents a tough challenge to wild bee populations,” noted Eduardo Zattara, an evolutionary biologist at Indiana University Bloomington, last year.

Main image credit:  Krzysztof Niewolny/Unsplash

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.