The public communication initiative organized by the Department of the Environment of the Umbria Region took place this morning at Villa Umbra in Pila, with speakers who were experts in beekeeping and botany and with the presence of the Ambassador of the Republic of Slovenia, Matjaž Longar, and by Economic Advisor Katia Cimperšek, to illustrate and exchange good practices for the protection of pollinators and ecosystems.
The Environment Department of the Umbria Region has promoted islands of sustainability, with plants of honey interest as part of “Say it with a flower! Let’s Cultivate Biodiversity”, an event created to inform and raise awareness among citizens about the importance of protecting bees and all other pollinators, as they guarantee life on earth. Gardens, balconies, flowerbeds, lawns: even the choice of a plant can help protect them. A booklet listing which honey plants are particularly suitable in this sense was given to the public present.
The event was organized to celebrate the recent “World Bee Day”, which occurs every year in May to raise international public awareness of the fundamental role of pollinators for our very existence.
In fact, since 2017 the United Nations General Assembly has decided to designate May 20 as a symbolic date, coinciding with the birth of Anton Janša (1734-1773), a pioneer of modern beekeeping techniques in his native country in the 18th century. Slovenia.
The event at Villa Umbra had as its guest the Ambassador of the Republic of Slovenia in Italy, Matjaž Longar, who in his speech wanted to underline the importance of bees in safeguarding the ecosystem and for the agri-food production permitted by the pollination. “Our country – underlined the Ambassador of the Republic of Slovenia – promotes numerous public awareness programs linked to knowledge of the world of bees and beekeeping, with school programmes, diffusion of agricultural practices, planting campaigns of tree species which encourage presence. Therefore, it was with great pleasure that we accepted the invitation to participate in this important communication day organized by the Environment Department of the Umbria Region”.
A partnership born thanks to the sharing of intentions, to give even more strength to the common objective of “helping nature”, starting with bees and all the other precious pollinators. The events connected to the celebration of “World Bee Day”, such as this one on May 24th in the Umbria Region, are created to remember that humanity depends on small, tireless pollinators; that protecting them means avoiding serious problems related to food supply and stopping the degradation of ecosystems. For some time and from many quarters, alarms have been coming about the priority of recreating an ideal habitat, of making the world a single area of environmental respect.
The Department of the Environment, in line with the significant support actions for the beekeeping sector implemented so far and with the Sustainable Development Strategy pursued by the Umbria Region, has deemed it important to implement this year too, for the fourth consecutive time , an initiative dedicated to the need to ensure the future of the planet and the new generations.
A lineup full of professional contributions moderated by Erica Bernasconi, an expert from the Umbria Region in sensorial analysis of honey. Among the guests at the event were also the students of the Liceo Classico e Musicale Annibale Mariotti, accompanied by the school director Francesca Gobbi, the teacher Mariangela Ronzitti and the university teacher Luca Garosi, winners of the “Young reporters for Umbria” award with the video “Bee – o – diversity”, presented for the occasion with an introduction to the project by Maria Rosaria Fraticelli, head of the institutional communication and marketing section of the Umbria Region. The video is part of a project financed by the Region and created in collaboration with the RAI School of Journalism of Ponte Felcino, Perugia. The honors of the house by Michele Michelini, regional director of economic development, agriculture, work, education, digital agenda.
Among the speakers Mirko Pacioni, president of the “Meleiros – bees, honey, biodiversity” foundation; Mauro Roberto Cagiotti, former UNIPG professor of geobotany and biogeography; Francesca Marinangeli, researcher at the CREA Policy and Bioeconomy Center; Giuseppina Mantucci Massi Benedetti, organizer of the “I giorni delle rose” event; Tiziano Gardi, former beekeeping teacher, MASAF national beekeeping expert; Simone Padella, manager of the mineral resources and supervision section, Umbria Region. A final video summarized the vision of what Biodiversity means and how to promote it, with interviews with representatives of beekeepers’ associations and the agricultural world. The final message of the event “Say it with a flower! Let’s cultivate Biodiversity”, is the following: from flower to flower, insects not only feed themselves, but in turn allow the reproduction of plant organisms. Promoting the presence of honey species means contributing to the “health” of the ecosystem and to ours.
