Kiwi bees get a boost from Kiwi kids

News release: Kiwi bees get a boost from Kiwi kids

Thousands of bee-friendly gardens will be blooming all over New Zealand thanks to the next generation of bee-loving school children and an initiative from Bayer New Zealand and Apiculture New Zealand.

As part of Bee Aware Month (BAM) celebrations, Bayer and Apiculture New Zealand (ApiNZ), with the help of Yates, will supply 1,040 schools through Garden to Table Trust and Enviroschools with packets of bee-friendly plant seed mixes.

Bayer farm animal products marketing manager George Reeves said it wanted to help promote flowering gardens at schools to increase access to food and nesting habitats for bees and other pollinators.

As a responsible life science company with many years’ experience in bee health topics, Bayer understands that healthy bees are necessary, not only as pollinators for sustainable food production and as honey producers but also for the important role they play in many ecosystems around the world.

Bayer will supply the schools, aged from early childhood centres to secondary schools, with a packet of wildflower seeds which will provide food for bees all season long – a small commitment to a big cause, ApiNZ CEO Daniel Paul said.

Each packet of seeds also comes with an educational information booklet about the honey bee and how planting seeds can help.

Mr Paul said all of the organisations working together shared the same ethos of caring for the environment and honey bees in a sustainable way.

“Bees pollinate one-third of the food we eat and life without them would be a struggle.

“But it’s a two-way street. Bees need us to plant food they can eat to keep them buzzing. At the moment the bee population here is increasing; there are close to 700,000 hives in NZ, but that doesn’t mean the honey bee is free from challenges and they still need our help.

“It’s great to see Kiwi kids getting involved and showing Kiwi bees some love. Hopefully, we are not only building bee-friendly gardens but the next generation of bee-friendly New Zealanders and maybe even beekeepers.”

BAM will be celebrated across New Zealand throughout September.

The month long campaign is devoted to making New Zealanders think about the honey bee and its critically important role in our biodiversity and economy.

New Zealand’s bee population contribute about $5 billion to our economy annually. New Zealand’s manuka honey is some of the highest valued honey in the world.

Editor’s note:

About ApiNZ; http://apinz.org.nz/bee-aware-month/

Apiculture New Zealand (ApiNZ) is the peak body representing the beekeeping and honey products industry. Its aim is to support and deliver benefit to the New Zealand apiculture industry by creating a positive industry profile, business environment and opportunities for members.

The Bee Aware Month campaign is now in its seventh year. The campaign started as a small cocktail event in Parliament. It progressed to a week-long media awareness campaign. And three years ago it morphed into a month-long event aimed at the public as well.

About Bayer; www.beecare.bayer.com

Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the Life Science fields of health care and agriculture. Employing 117,000 people worldwide, and around 1000 in Australia/New Zealand, the Bayer Group has operations in nearly all countries of the globe.

The Bayer Bee Care was established in 2011 to promote bee health and therefore support research and the corresponding product development. It also facilitates discussion and collaboration across all stakeholders with regard to bee health topics.

About Enviroschools; www.enviroschools.org.nz

An action-based education programme where young people plan, design and implement sustainability projects and become catalysts for change in their families, and within the wider New Zealand community. Enviroschools engages with children, young people and their communities through the formal education system of early childhood education (ECE) centres, primary and secondary schools.

About Garden to Table Trust www.gardentotable.org.nz

Garden to Table was founded in 2009 with the objective to establish resources to train and educate children in New Zealand schools in the practice of “growing, harvesting, preparing and sharing” fresh food. The Trust is committed to building the future of NZ children through a simple, hands-on, programme that is focused on developing life skills, environmental awareness and community engagement.

It has been designed around the development of an environmentally sustainable garden, the production of a range of recipes students can prepare using the food they have grown, to culminate in the students, teachers and volunteers sitting together to share the ‘fruit’ of their labours - enjoying fresh food from garden to table.

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