Project Short Description
Creation of intellectual, institutional, professional and organizational capacities of the Pilot Education System Model for women and younggeneration to Restoration beekeeping and the process of pollination natural biocenoses and agrosystems in the war-affected UA regions withnext dissemination and сreat of innovated teaching means for dealing with the negative impacts of war in the environment.
Project Goal
Goal of this Project is to prepare a pilot educationalsystem for the restoration and saving of beekeeping after the war in Ukraine, with a priority for women and a new generation of beekeepers,with the preparation of a series of innovative educational texts and a series of special lectures with an orientation towards solving negativefactors in the occupied territories of Ukraine.
PROJECT RELEVANCE
Beekeeping production of honey and bee products in Ukraine ranks third in the world, and first in EU of honey exports in 2024. In theOfficial Register Apiary at the end of 2024, 2.68M bee colonies were registered, which are kept in 58.2K apiaries. In addition, at least 30%of apiaries operate unregistered, so the total number of beekeepers is estimated at over 75K people. Most the apiaries were kept by menbefore the war, and only 16% were owned by women. With the war beginning the situation changed. Most men are at war, women have nobeekeeping experience, in the occupied territories apiaries are not properly maintained or destroyed, territories are contaminated withunknown chemical weapons, electricity and water cuts, constant bombings, economic crisis. Professional beekeepers die every day in waror are unable to continue their activities due to injuries. All this leads to a decrease in the apiaries number, inadequate care for bees andspread of their diseases, decrease of honey quality, including exported, and decrease in prices. A serious problem for food security is thelimit of the pollination process of natural ecosystems and mainly cultivated plants in agriculture. All this necessitates the renewal, inparticular the education of women and retraining veterans for restoration and saving of beekeeping. Reconstruction of war-affected regionswill take many years, mainly to improve the environment for the population and food security. Beekeeping restoration will require greatdedication from educational and research institutions, and especially from women’s community
Problem Solving
The restoration of beekeeping in Ukraine, which has suffered from martial law, is a very complex and long-term process of solving manyproblems. The main task of the project is to compensate for the large loss of professional male beekeepers as a result of hostilities. Theirreplacement can be provided by women, veterans and training a new generation of beekeepers. This is a complex problem. Until now, 84%of demanding professional beekeeping work has been performed by men, Ukrainian statistics recorded only 16% of professional femalebeekeepers. A second, smaller group of women helped their male beekeepers, who have partial experience and knowledge of beekeepingpractice. Therefore, to restore beekeeping in Ukraine, it is necessary to prepare a large group of women for professional beekeeping.Women, who have almost no knowledge and experience in beekeeping, need training through the existing specialized educational system.However, existing educational resources, manuals, and beekeeping courses have the disadvantage of not including the issues of war and itslong-term consequences, which need to be considered simultaneously.
Why are we doing this?
Women from a beekeeping non-profit organization that unites university teachers, scientists, apitherapists, and practical specialists proposean innovative project to restore beekeeping in Ukraine by creating intellectual, institutional, and organizational capabilities to prepare a piloteducational system to train large group of women who will begin the gradual restoration of beekeeping in war-affected regions. Added valueof this project is new solutions for the restoration of beekeeping in connection with the current military operations and many negativefactors that affect the lives of residents and the restoration of bees and the preservation of other pollinators. Training materials will take intoaccount negative factors: environmental degradation due to the use of weapons; impact of war on the bees health and reproduction, feedsources; bee products quality and safety; beehives destruction and inaccessibility; reduced pollination; biodiversity degradation of naturalecosystems; decrease crop yields and food insecurity. This situation remains unresolved in traditional beekeeping, education, scientificresearch, and is not included in textbooks and training manuals. Additional value of project is integration of addressing the negative warfactors into education system and training tools for beekeeping. System will focus on training women and young beekeepers in threecategories: novice beekeepers; beekeepers with insufficient knowledge and skills; veterans who want to retrain. Project partners will helpform the education system and training tools
Why Ukraine?
Ukraine has a long history of beekeeping and is well known internationally for excellent honey quality and other beeproducts. Before thewar, UA was the leading honey producer in world. Ukrainian scientist and beekeeper Petro Prokopovych in 1814 designed the first framehive, which to this day is the most effective and widespread method for beekeepers from all over Europe. Prokopovych also opened the firstbeekeeping school. Universities and research institutes of UA are among the most important Centers of knowledge for beekeepersthroughout Europe. UA also has 3 local bees subspecies, which can be save and used for improving the genetic EU resources. Therefore, EUand project partner countries have long-term cooperation with UA beekeepers, beekeeping institutions and imports of high-quality honeyand other beeproducts. The war in UA has changed many relationships and interrupted cooperation in many areas. Project partners highlyappreciate their participation in project solution of a very specific issue and active participation in solving the crisis management of therestoration of beekeeping in UA. They expect that the project solution will be beneficial in gaining knowledge about the restoration ofbeekeeping in UA and war impact to the quality of honey and beeproducts imported to the V4 regions. It will also be of great benefit to gainknowledge about the education system and innovative textbooks for the restoration of beekeeping in UA and addressing the negative war-factors in beekeeping, in the preparation of which they will also take direct part.