According to the mayor of Oliveira do Hospital, José Francisco Rolo, the municipality support aims to “help promote an important economic activity with importance and history” in the municipality and which is experiencing difficulties due to the lack of food and damage caused by the Asian wasp.

“It contributes not only to stimulating honey production but also to reinforcing the role that bees play in maintaining biodiversity and pollinating crops, especially in rural areas”, he explained.

The Municipality of Oliveira do Hospital will distribute, from the 25th of October, seven tons of food to bees, covering 2,332 colonies of 53 beekeepers.

This support was granted within the scope of the Beekeepers Support Program, which was launched with the aim of “giving help to a sector that is facing great difficulties in terms of food shortages, due to climate change that affects the normal regeneration of flora ”.

Beekeepers benefiting from this program, which had two application phases so that “no one would be left behind”, will also receive traps to capture the Asian wasp.

“The Municipality of Oliveira do Hospital has maintained an active awareness campaign among the population to report sightings, as well as combat, install traps and destroy nests of this invader, seeking to reduce the impact caused by this wasp, on health, as well as maintaining the safety of our populations and our beekeeping activity”, he concluded.