Dear friends

Congratulations to readers in Tanzania! This month Tanzania becomes the 34th nation in Africa to ban the use of plastic bags. Your Journal is now delivered in a fully compostable wrapper made from potato and corn starch. Biodegradation takes place in compost, soil, fresh or salt water – when microorganisms are present the wrapper will break down in about ten days into carbon, hydrogen and oxygen.

Reducing use of plastic bags brings many benefits: one is minimizing the creation of waste which ends up in the world’s oceans, harming marine life because bags are consumed whole by sea turtles, dolphins and whales, whose stomachs become crammed with bags and other plastics – and this happens on land too – in Africa killing cattle and elephants. If these plastics are incinerated, they create toxic air pollution.

Rwanda is now aiming to be the world’s first plasticfree country, and its prohibitions are working: the UN named Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, Africa’s cleanest city, thanks in part to non-biodegradable plastic being banned for more than ten years. This month Rwanda’s parliament passed a law further prohibiting the manufacture, importation, use and sale of all single-use plastic items, thus extending the ban to plastic cups, straws, stirrers and water bottles, and most food packaging materials. Once again Africa is leading the way!

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Here in UK we are heartened to know that members of our Royal Family are interested in bees, and at our biennial Bee Garden Party held in central London, we were delighted to be joined by Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cornwall. Her Royal Highness tasted many honeys on display from Australia, Ghana, India and Tobago, and was interested to know about the different bees and beekeeping practices involved.

Organising this awareness and fund-raising event is a colossal task for our small team here at Bees for Development, however it is a crucial part of our work: to raise the funds that we need to continue providing this Journal to you, and our other beekeeper-readers world wide. Do let us know what you think of this edition – we love to hear from you and greatly value your news and opinions.

Nicola Bradbear Director, Bees for Development