Dear friends

In this edition you will see our report of the 2011 Apimondia Congress that took place in Argentina. The Congress is the largest beekeeping event of its kind, with people from around the world meeting to learn the latest news and catch up with current trends. Participants include beekeepers (of course), and researchers, traders and retailers, product manufacturers, authors, conservationists and anthropologists, and people with all sorts of esoteric interests in apiculture, not forgettgin the culture and research of non-Apis bee species too.

Apimondia is the World Federation of Beekeeping Organisations, with headquarters in Rome, and organises its work into seven scientific and five geographic Commissions. The Scientific Commission Beekeeping for Rural Development addresses aspects of this important sector, and we will organise Symposia at the next Apimondia Congress taking place in Kiev, Ukraine, in September 2013. Plans are already in place, and next time we will address the important issue of ethics in apiculture.

The Apimondia Congress takes place every second year – in the intervening year there are now many other Apimondia Symposia, as well as regional meetings such as the Asian Apiculture Association taking place in Malaysia, and the ApiTrade Africa meeting in Ethiopia, both in September 2012 (all details on page 12).

Of course for many people it is impossible to attend these international events, and the financial and carbon costs of travel cannot be always justified. Therefore in these pages we aim to keep you up to date, and please see our website too for longer editions of many of the articles featured here.

With best wishes from the Bees for Development team for fruitful beekeeping in 2012.

Bees on tap

I am teaching in the school at the Sera May temple which is 90 km south west of Mysore near Bylakuppe in Karnataka State, South India. The temple is part of the Buddhist Sera Monastery complex within a large Tibetan settlement area. I noticed the bees on the taps at the school as shown in the cover picture and there are over 30 active colonies of Apis dorsata hanging from the eaves of the temple.

PHOTO © ANNA GREENWOOD

Anna Greenwood