PREPARATORY ACTION FOR MONITORING OF ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION USING HONEY BEES
As the first country INSIGNIA is presented in the Portuguese beekeeping magazine Revista O Apicultor.
Portugal is one of the important beekeeping countries in Europe having around 600.000 colonies in 30.000 apiaries, run by 11.000 beekeepers. Professional beekeeping is relatively big, running around the half of all the colonies. Portugal was in 2015 the 9th biggest honey producer in EU producing 11.500 tons of honey.
The first “kick off” meeting of the INSIGNIA consortium took place in Oisterwijk, Netherlands in November 2018. The meeting was attended by 18 participants representing 15 institutions from 11 countries. After initial introductions and the completion of some formalities, detailed discussions took place to establish the experimental protocols which will be used in the first year of the project. An article intended for beekeeping magazines introducing the project has been written and has been published in Denmark, to be followed by magazines in Portugal and the UK.
The insignia logo was suggested and create by Fani Hatjina, Ellinikos Georgikos Organismos – Dimitra (Greece). Picturing the image by Mikkel Toke Grønkjær (www.mikkelgroenkjaer.dk). It is of course the six sided hexagon cell of a bee frame. As Charles Darwin once wrote: The honeycomb is a masterpiece of engineering. It is absolutely perfect in economizing labor and wax. Mikkel produced 2 color types of the logo, and we use both.
