UK Government Launches Plan to Protect Honey Bees

Plan to Protect Bees Before the Buzz Dies Out
By Catherine Jacob, Sky News, 3/9/2009

The government has launched a new Healthy Bees plan to protect and improve the health of the beleaguered honey bee in England and Wales.

The last two years have seen recorded losses of between 10 to 15% in bee numbers, according to the environment department, Defra.

The 10-year plan aims to sustain honey bee populations by helping beekeepers to try to minimise risk from pests and disease.

It comes after the Environment Secretary, Hilary Benn, announced an extra £4.3m of investment in bee health.

The first stage of the plan will attempt to make contact with around 20,000 amateur beekeepers.

They will be told to make sure they are aware of the need to alert the National Bee Unit (NBU) to bee health problems and encourage them to register on BeeBase, its beekeepers database…