Fourth Civilization in Forestry and Grassland Economy from the Development of Honey Bee Industry | ZHOU Jinfeng Talks about the Fourth Civilization (Vol. 275)

On November 19, 2023, Dr. Zhou Jinfeng, Vice President and Secretary General of the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF), gave a presentation at the Boao Conference on Forestry and Grassland Economy Development in China 2023 in Hainan. The following is a summary of the presentation.

（From 2018 World Bee Day）

In the November 16, 2023 issue of the magazine Qiushi, published an important article of "Promoting the construction of an ecological civilization requires dealing with several major relationships", in which the section on "Relationships between natural restoration and artificial restoration" mentioned why we need natural restoration.

The word "restoration" is the one that I particularly excerpted. Compared with the word "respiration", it is very clear that we should adhere to the policy of mainly natural restoration.

What is natural restoration? How can we pay attention to this in the development of the forest and grassland economy? I will talk about the concept based on the case of honeybee. 

The vast majority of beekeepers in China now keep Italian bees, not Chinese bees. The difference between them is that Chinese bees go out one month earlier than Italian bees to collect honey in early spring. By going out one month earlier, the plants in China start to blossom from February to March and can be pollinated. Without Chinese bees, there is no way for these plants to be pollinated, and there is no way for them to regenerate in the next year, and with the lack of regeneration of grasses will bring about desertification, and the quality of the water in some water sources will be affected as well. 

Therefore, the Chinese bee plays a critical role in plant growth. However, the forest and grass economic development model promoted by the industrial civilization has been more widely promoted by Italian bees, because of its higher honey production profits. 

I was in a meeting in Beijing with a representative of an international honey manufacturing company and its technical director. Their honey comes from a tree called Manuka, which is only produced in Italy and New Zealand, and they are doing very well in producing honey, including sales in China.

It was suggested that they could introduce the Manuka tree to China. I told the company representatives and technical directors that this was not a good idea and was not in line with the development concept of the fourth civilization. 

What is a fourth civilization? It should be about supporting the development of native Chinese bees and protecting native species and their habitats, to develop quality products with more advantages, which solves the problem of the honey manufacturing company and also protects the ecology. 

After the meeting, the international enterprise signed a landing contract with the relevant parties in Miyun, an important breeding area for Chinese bees in Beijing.

Original Link: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/E9lMt_m5_vgFrT5M2YXYTQ

Editor: LYJ

Checked by Maggie

Contact: v10@cbcgdf.org; +8617319454776

   

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