President Higgins and World Bee Day – Visit by Professor Jane Stout (Botany) and Dr. Una Fitzpatrick (National Biodiversity Centre):
May 2019
Visit by Professor Jane Stout (Botany) and Dr. Una Fitzpatrick the Chair of the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan from the National Biodiversity Data Centre to meet the President, Michael D. Higgins, at Áras an Uachtaráin. They visited the walled garden in the Áras and discussed bees, the importance of pollinators and the plight of biodiversity in general.
Read the full Irishtimes article here.
Statement by President Michael D. Higgins marking World Bee Day 2019
“On United Nations designated World Bee Day, we are reminded not only of the important part played in our inter-dependent world by bees and other pollinators and the need to promote sustainable farming practices and hedgerow management but also of how we can all help by sustaining and providing a suitable environment for our bees.
Humanity depends on pollinators. They are vital to the global food chain. Yet, we must acknowledge that our actions – including farming practices, urbanisation, land management, environmental pollution and the climate crisis – have placed our insect world in acute danger.
So today, let us use World Bee Day, and National Biodiversity Week, to increase and spread the knowledge and the awareness of the importance of the living world, and commit to specific action to ensure the survival of all of Ireland’s native bee and pollinator species.
As President of Ireland, may I thank all those who are already taking action, and who continue to work to conserve our environment in all its vital diversity, and may I express the hope that World Bee Day and National Biodiversity Week will inspire countless others to join them and discover how they, too, can be part of the urgent change that we must achieve for our generation and generations to come.”
