PRESS RELEASE: The European Bee Award 2022 winners are ‘Veitshöchheimer Hempmix’ and ‘IT Beekeeping by AmoHive’
In an award ceremony hosted by MEP Franc Bogoviฤ at the European Parliament in Brussels, the IX edition of the European Bee Award rewarded a wildflower mixture for biogas production and a beehive monitoring system.
Brussels 7th December 2022 – The European Bee Award has been acknowledging innovative, efficient, and scalable projects that protect pollinators in Europe since it was established in 2014 by the European Landowners’ Organization (ELO) and the European Agricultural Machinery Industry Association (CEMA). The ELO and CEMA were delighted to award this year’s prizes last night to the winners:
- Category ‘Land management practices’: the winner is Veitshöchheimer Hempmix (‘Veitshöchheimer Hanfmix’) by the Bavarian State Institute for Viticulture and Horticulture (LWG). LWG designed a wildflower mixture of 30 predominantly native wild and cultivated annual, biennial and perennial flowering plants that deliver diverse floral resources, as well as biomass that can be used for the production of biogas. This creates an agricultural cultivation system that combines productivity and biodiversity.
- Category ‘Innovative and technological solutions’: the winner is IT Beekeeping by AmoHive. Amohive created a small 3D model of a hive that monitors hive activity (through an electronic scale, temperature sensors, GPS and a solar panel that powers the electronics) and sends information to a server. An algorithm processes the data and decides in which mode the hives should continue to work. The data can be followed in real time in an app which is already used in Poland, Ukraine and Canada.
The Special Mention of the Jury was awarded to Birr Castle Bee Project by the Birr Castle Estate, who implemented changes in the land and forest management across the estate’s 900 hectares in order to create, protect, and enhance bee habitat wherever possible.
Dr. Michael Garratt, from the University of Reading, President of the European Bee Award Jury which includes also international experts, members of the European Institutions and NGOs, said: “The entries to the European Bee Award submitted showcase a real variety of positive actions and activities to support bees and pollinators across Europe. We thank participants for their commitment and enthusiasm”.
The host of the ceremony MEP Franc Bogoviฤ (EPP, Slovenia) commented: “Food security in the EU has been taken for granted, but with energy security, it is one of the pillars of security overall. It is necessary to take into account that there can be no food without pollinators, and many new European policy measures are pollinators friendly for this reason. But we need an environment in which farmers can produce food and have their income, too. We can do this; it goes hand in hand with improving their sustainability and their production. Projects like the European Bee Award show us that in nature things go together. We need to go in this direction of a better, more sustainable agriculture sector, and quality food production, which is essential in Europe”.
Bettina Doeser, Head of Unit, Natural Capital & Ecosystem Health, DG Environment at the European Commission, said “The decline of wild pollinators in the last decades seriously puts at risk the functioning of our ecosystems and well-being. All projects and entries for the Bee Award deserve praise: you are already doing what we aim to do on a broader scale with the European Commission’s strategic initiatives. We thank you for your work and ask you to continue to be the practitioners and founders of good practices and management for pollinators”.
Thierry de l’Escaille, Secretary General of ELO commented: “In our daily activities, we landowners and managers of farmlands and forests aim to combine the production of food, and other biomass, with the protection of our ecosystem and environment, and with our responsibility as employers and as entrepreneurs in rural areas. We need more bottom-up approaches, inspiring and effective examples to upscale, like the projects we are awarding today and have been committed to support through the European Bee Award since its foundation”.
Gilles Dryancour, Chairman of the CEMA Strategic Committee and member of the Bee Award Jury said: “The European Bee Award is now in its ninth edition, and we are always impressed by the creativity and innovation shown by applicants. The beehive was created over 4500 years ago, and then perfected in 1845. Tonight’s winners Amohive start a new beehive generation, a modern design including sensors measuring temperature and weight, very practical to evaluate the health of bees, and a very useful tool for educational purposes. We thank you for being builders of the future of beekeeping”.
Marin Miletiฤ, Member of the Croatian Parliament also intervened at the event and described efforts that can be carried over at national level to include beekeepers in the public debate.
In 2022, the European Bee Award competition received 26 applications from 16 different European countries. Last night’s award ceremony gathered over 70 participants: beekeepers, policy makers, land managers, academia and representatives of the agri-food sector exchanged best practices, while getting inspired by new ideas on how to protect bees and enhance biodiversity in Europe.
To learn more about this award please visit:
#EUBeeAward
Project Veitshöchheimer Hempmix by the Bavarian State Institute for Viticulture and Horticulture (LWG) receives the Land management practices prize.
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Project IT Beekeeping by AmoHive receives the Innovative and technological solutions prize.
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Project Birr Castle Bee Project by the Birr Castle Estate receives the Special Mention of the Jury.
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The winners of the 2022 European Bee Award with Jury President Michael Garratt, ELO Secretary General Thierry de l’Escaille, Croatian MP Marin Miletiฤ and MEP Franc Bogoviฤ
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About European Landowners’ Organization (ELO)
ELO is committed to promoting a sustainable and prosperous countryside and to increasing awareness relating to environmental and agricultural issues. Engaging various stakeholders, ELO develops policy recommendations and programmes of action. ELO also organises interdisciplinary meetings gathering together key actors from the rural sector and policy makers at the local, regional, national and European level. Its ability to do all of this assures ELO its unique position among the think tanks in the agricultural, environmental and rural activities’ sectors.
About CEMA
CEMA aisbl is the association representing the European agricultural machinery industry. With 11 national member associations, the CEMA network represents both large multinational companies and numerous SMEs active in this sector. The industry comprises about 7,000 manufacturers, producing more than 450 different types of machines with an annual turnover of about €40 billion and 150,000 direct employees. CEMA companies produce a large range of machines that cover any activity in the field from seeding to harvesting, as well as equipment for livestock management.
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2021 EDITION
'Coup d'Pousse' and 'Connected scales' take the big prizes at the VIII edition of the European Bee Award.
In a ceremony hosted by MEP Franc Bogoviฤ in Brussels, the VIII edition of the European Bee Award acknowledges the great commitment of private and public organisations, as well as the involvement of the research community, to enhance pollinators’ wellbeing and support bee-friendly farming practices in Europe.
BRUSSELS, 8 DECEMBER 2021—
The European Bee Award has been committed to acknowledging, supporting and incentivising, innovative and scalable projects that ensure the protection and prosperity of pollinators in Europe. This award was established in 2014 by the European Landowners’ Organization (ELO) and the European Agricultural Machinery Industry Association (CEMA), who were delighted to provide the prizes to this year’s winners:
โ Category ‘Land management practices’: the winner is ‘Coup d’Pousse’, a project by Réseau Biodiversité pour les Abeilles. With the participatory action of melliferous fields sponsorship, farmers can register to benefit from seeds to sow flower strips in fallow land in spring, and intercrops in summer. Beekeepers can also register to get in touch with farmers who implanted floral resources in their department, to set up their hives there.
โ Category ‘Innovative and technological solutions’: the winner is ‘Connected scales’, an initiative by FDSEA Ile-de-France (Departmental Federation of Farmers Unions in the region Ile-de-France). This project aims to allow the best living conditions for bees by protecting them from phytosanitary treatments periods. Besides agricultural practices adaptation to bee protection, this project also implements flowering fallows to make them available to pollinators.
In addition, the 'Special Mention of the Jury' was bestowed to ‘Smartomizer H3O protecting bees by reducing the pesticides use’, by Pulverizadores Fede. The Smartomizer H3O is an integrated pest management system that reduces negative effects on pollinators and also protects biodiversity by reducing the environmental impact of the high value crops protection task by carrying out precise and eco-responsible treatments.
Read the full press release here
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2020 EDITION
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2019 EDITION
Pro Planet Apples from Lake Constance and AI technology Apisfero winning projects of the 2019 European Bee Award
In a ceremony hosted by MEP Franc Bogoviฤ at the European Parliament in Brussels, the VI edition of the European Bee Award acknowledges the great commitment of private and public organisations, as well as the involvement of the research community, to enhance pollinators’ wellbeing and support bee-friendly farming practices in Europe.
The European Bee Award is a contest initially created by ELO and CEMA (European Agricultural Machinery Association). Since 2014, the award has highlighted innovative projects from all across Europe aiming at the protection of pollinators, among others in farmed environment. On the 10th of December 2019, MEP Frank BOGOVIC hosted the ceremony award in Brussels at the European Parliament. The ceremony gathered over 100 people to celebrate the winners of the 2019 edition which received 36 applications from 11 different countries.
Former European Commissioner for R&D and Environment Janez Potocnik opened the ceremony, stressing that “it is really hard to imagine a future without the bees, let’s respect and treat them in a responsible way, the way they deserve due to all the good things they are providing to us humans and the rest of nature.” On behalf of ELO, Alain Scriban awarded the first category prize to the Lake Constance Foundation in Germany for their project, Pro Planet Apples, from Lake Constance. They have developed a way to encourage apple growers in the region to implement sustainable pollinator protection. The project has seen a significant impact and positive results whilst demonstrating that it has tremendous capacity for scalability.
Gilles Dryancour, honorary president of CEMA, handed the second category prize to the Italian team of Apisfero for their project, Bee Varroa Scanner: a high-resolution scan using artificial intelligence to count Varroa mite in the hive helping beekeepers in fighting this scourge widely affecting honey bees in Europe. Dr. Michael GARRATT, President of the jury for the second year, gave the special mention of the jury to ‘Green-roofed bus shelters in Utrecht.’ They stood out for their innovative and original method of providing shelter for pollinators and feeding them in urban areas, where their natural habitats are usually scarce.
If you want to find out more about the winners of the 2019 European Bee Award, please refer to Countryside magazine n°184.
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2018 EDITION
Protecting the bees: A holistic land management approach and an innovative sowing machine
are the winners of this year’s edition of the European Bee
MEP Karl-Heinz Florenz hosted the ceremony at the European Parliament in Brussels and in the presence of EU Director General for Environment Daniel Calleja Crespo, this year’s prize was awarded to a Spanish project focusing on holistic land management practices and an innovative sowing machine for field margins.
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Download here the Press Release
2017 EDITION
Solitary bees’ protection and bee-friendly spraying technology winner projects of the IV edition of the European Bee Award
In a ceremony hosted by MEP Franc Bogoviฤ at the European Parliament in Brussels and in presence of EU Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society Mariya Gabriel, this year’s award celebrates in particular the great commitment of private and public organisations, as well as individual initiatives, to pollinators’ wellbeing and bee-friendly farming practices in Europe.
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Learn more about the 2017 winners here
Download here the Press Release
