Climate change is real. As is a few other stressing concerns. Like the declination of bees. We heard a few yers ago how there has been a steep decline in bees, the world over, and how this is a huge risk factor in the very existence of mankind. Well, finally, someone’s decided to do something significant about it. UNESCO for one, but more interestingly, Guerlain. The LMVH-owned perfume and cosmetics brand has partnered with the UN organisation to work -on a five-year plan to help and save the diving bee population on this planet.
How will they? The luxury brand and the UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere (MAB) program will work on the project, which comes with four main objective. They are:
1. Training of beekepers in different biosphere reserves that are designated by the UN body
2. Set up bee farms comprising 50 hives each
3. Provide technical support and a stable business model in collaboration with the Observatoire Francais d’Apidologie (OFA)
4. Assess the benefits of pollination in the ecosystem
The first phase will use eight beekeepers from four countries – Ethiopia, Rwanda, Cambodia and China – to expand to 88 beekeepers across 44 biosphere reserves with a total of 4,400 bee hives by 2024. Subsequently, over the five years, 20 more beekeepers will be trained in 10 additional countries.
Why the involvement of Guerlain, now? The brand has been “intimately linking activities to the resources that are offered by nature” and so they feel they “simply cannot ignore biodiversity issues”. Additionally, they have also been working on initiatives to protect biodiversity for more than 12 years now and this project seemed to fall in place rather well.
The collaboration will debut next year.
