Wild honey bees in the EU now on the red list

Most honey bees are kept by beekeepers in hives. However, there are also wild bee colonies that choose their own homes (e.g. woodpecker holes) and survive in nature without any human intervention.

A recent study based on data from seven European countries (including Luxembourg) has now led to wild honey bees in the EU being classified as endangered on the IUCN RED LIST

The Mouvement Ecologique has once again approached Agriculture Minister Martine Hansen and Environment Minister Serge Wilmes to urge them to finally remove the current unspeakable obligation to destroy wild honeybee nests from Luxembourg legislation (an initial letter sent in April 2022 to the then Agriculture Minister Claude Haagen had no effect).

The Grand Ducal Regulation of 23 December 1998 (…) on livestock health policy still states in Article 79: “The veterinary inspector orders that all abandoned hives or wild colonies be destroyed during the month of February each year.”

You can find the letter from the Mouvement Ecologique to the ministers in French here

(1) International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species
(2) https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/42463639/277757621#