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DECORATING THE ROADS WITH FLOWERS TO FEED THE B

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DECORATING THE ROADS WITH FLOWERS TO FEED THE BEES

04-02-2010

04-02-2010

Flowers will be sown along the French main road shoulders during Spring to help fight against the disappearance of pollinating insects.

Roads to come in aid of bees. This coming Spring 2010, in France, flowers to the taste of forager bees will be sown along 250 km of main roads. The French junior minister for Transport declared the initiative to be an opportunity to “reduce the environmental impact of road infrastructure” when it was announced last January. Decimated by diseases, pesticides and the destruction of the hedges where they nest, bees are disappearing from the fields. And yet, they play a crucial role in nature and agriculture: carrying pollen from one flower to another enables pollination and thus the development of fruits and vegetables. No bees means no apples, no pears, no strawberries! They are reputed to contribute to the reproduction of 80 % of the world’s plant species. In France, as well as in a lot of industrialized countries, forager bees have difficulties finding the flowers they feed on. Sowing melliferous species (appreciated by bees) along road shoulders will vary these insects’ alimentary bolus and help them become more resistant to diseases and parasites. The French State’s technical services will conduct another test: mowing road shoulders once per season only, instead of thrice, to leave time for natural flowers to bloom. This experiment will be assessed over three years. If the results are conclusive (pollen foraging intensity, honey analysis, pollen components), the programme will be extended to the 12,000 km of national road network that are not granted to motorway companies.