Yeongdeok-gun Discusses 'Mass Honeybee Deaths' Recovery Plan with Beekeepers

The 2nd On-site Communication Day with Residents, County Governor Kim Gwang-yeol Meets Beekeeping Association

Measures Developed Including Planting Nectar Trees, Eradicating Invasive Hornets, and Normalizing Propolis Factory Operations

Kim Kwang-yeol, the governor of Yeongdeok-gun, Gyeongbuk, held the '2nd On-site Communication Day with Residents' at the Yeongdeok-gun Agricultural Technology Center on the 15th, where he met with officials from the Yeongdeok-gun Beekeeping Association (hereafter the Association) to hear about the serious situation of the mass death of honeybees that occurred last winter and discuss practical support measures for beekeeping farms.

Kim Kwang-yeol, Yeongdeok County Governor, and heads of departments are discussing measures with local beekeeping farmers.

The global phenomenon of mass honeybee deaths is suspected to be mainly caused by climate warming, but it has not yet been scientifically clarified.

The scale of beekeeping farms in Yeongdeok-gun is about 230 households, and this recent mass death has caused the most severe damage in recent times. Association officials revealed that up to 90% of the bees have died or disappeared, causing unprecedented aftereffects for the farms.

At the beginning of the meeting, the correlation with pine wilt disease control, which was raised by some media outlets, was discussed. According to Kim Jeong-du, head of the Forest Protection Team who attended the meeting, the last pest control operations were conducted in June 2019 in Singi-ri, Changsu-myeon (drone control) and Myogok-ri, Yeonghae-myeon (ground control), and no pine wilt disease control work has been carried out since then.

Hwang Dae-sik, head of the Agricultural Technology Division, immediately accepted the Association's request to delay the timing of paddy crop pest control work to the afternoon, avoiding the morning when honeybees are most active, and the attendees reviewed factors that could cause honeybee deaths.

Governor Kim Kwang-yeol’s idea of ‘large-scale planting of nectar source trees’ received enthusiastic support from the Association officials that day.

Planting nectar source trees such as acacia, oriental raisin tree, and cornelian cherry on military-owned land in areas affected by last year’s wildfires, such as Hwasuri, is expected to simultaneously increase the honeybee population and honey production, greatly benefiting beekeeping farms. Additionally, nectar source trees will be actively used in planting projects around forest roads and roadside slopes.

They also explored measures to eradicate invasive hornets raised by Sa Gong-sam-sik, the Association’s deputy head. Although hornet damage is increasing, current eradication methods such as traps and net installations have many limitations.

The deputy head proposed using thermal imaging drone technology to detect and remove hornet nests, and Governor Kim instructed the responsible staff present at the meeting to conduct a thermal imaging drone search for hornet nests around June to July when nests form. If the effectiveness of this operation is proven, they plan to secure a budget and promote the project in earnest.

In addition, plans to stabilize beekeeping were derived, such as normalizing the local propolis processing factory to increase the added value of propolis, which is widely produced by beekeeping farms, and incorporating the sugar support project, which has been funded through supplementary budgets so far, into the main budget.

Since the seriousness of mass honeybee deaths is a nationwide issue, the Central Beekeeping Association and city/county beekeeping associations will urge the central government to implement support measures for beekeeping farms, and Yeongdeok-gun also plans to cooperate.

Governor Kim Kwang-yeol said, “Beekeeping farms are in a very difficult situation due to the unprecedented honeybee deaths. If honeybees decrease, fruit and vegetable farms will also be affected, and agriculture as a whole could suffer. We will strive to promptly and systematically implement the various measures discussed today to recover from the damage and restore beekeeping to normal as soon as possible.”