Chungnam Expands Honeybee Habitat Forests to 'Bring Back the Lost Bees'

[Asia Economy (Hongseong) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Chungnam Province is taking steps to restore the "disappeared honeybees" by expanding the creation of nectar forests. Nectar plants provide food for honeybees and play a role in maintaining the honeybee population where they are planted. The creation of nectar forests has recently emerged as an alternative to address the nationwide decline in honeybee populations.

According to the province on the 8th, Chungnam established a "Five-Year Plan for Expanding Nectar Plants (Phase 1)" in 2018 and has been expanding nectar forests. This aims to support local beekeepers facing difficulties due to the decline in nectar plants and climate change, and to restore and maintain the health of natural ecosystems through pollination by honeybees.

Based on the five-year plan, the province created nectar forests covering a total area of 2,677.9 hectares over four years by the end of last year as part of economic forest development.

This result exceeded the original plan to create 2,579 hectares of nectar forests by the end of this year, achieving the goal nearly 100 hectares ahead of schedule.

The annual areas of nectar forest creation were 547.3 hectares in 2018, 575.9 hectares in 2019, 798.7 hectares in 2020, and 756 hectares last year. During this period, about 6.114 million nectar plants of over 20 species, including Acacia, Magnolia, and Hovenia dulcis, were planted in the nectar forests.

This year, 1.299 million nectar plants will be planted over an area of 560 hectares in cities and counties within the province.

In particular, as the first phase of the nectar forest expansion plan is scheduled to be completed within this year, the province plans to establish an additional second phase five-year plan (2023?2027). It will also operate pilot honey harvesting sites in provincial forests, support honey harvesting convenience facilities in afforestation areas, and promote sixth industrialization measures.

Through these efforts, the province expects to achieve effects such as increasing beekeepers' income, establishing a foundation for economic forest development, diversifying honey harvesting species, and creating a base for producing functional honey.

Meanwhile, honeybees are known to be responsible for over 70% of global fruit and vegetable pollination, providing an economic value of approximately 50 trillion won annually to humans.

However, recently, the decline in honeybee populations has raised concerns that pollination activities are not being properly conducted, threatening the ecosystem itself.

In fact, a recent survey conducted by the Chungnam Beekeeping Association targeting 36 beekeeping farms in 6 cities and counties of Chungnam showed that the average rate of honeybee colony collapse and disappearance reached 59%.

The rapid decline in honeybee populations due to colony collapse and disappearance is attributed to factors such as diseases and pests like sacbrood virus, abnormal climate, pesticide use, air pollution, and the decrease in nectar plants.

Experts agree that urgent measures to address these issues include restoring and diversifying nectar plants, developing honeybee breeds, and promoting urban beekeeping.

As of August last year, there were a total of 2,672 beekeeping households in Chungnam, raising 285,756 colonies.

Im Seung-beom, Director of the Provincial Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Livestock, said, "Chungnam will continue to promote the expansion of nectar forests to restore the disappearing honeybees. This year marks the first fruits of the five-year plan (Phase 1) with the start of honey harvesting, and we expect visible results in the beekeeping field."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.