In the early 2000s, the TS Régent®, a Fipronil-based BASF product for the treatment of seeds, was deemed responsible for the mortality of bees in France. Its marketing was suspended in 2004 by the Ministry of Agriculture in pursuance of the precautionary principle. The decision was coupled with a mediastaged smear campaign and came as a real shock for the BASF management and collaborators in France. However, BASF decided to react, reassured by its wealth of experience in the field of Sustainable Development. It first looked for the real causes of the wasting away of bees from a scientific point of view and then opened a dialogue with apiarists.

As soon as 2004, the first technical apiarian conferences were organised so as to gather together scientists, farmers and apiarists who were hardly convinced by the Fipronil assumption (bees also die in regions where the product is not used). This dialogue was meant to stress the importance of feeding and of the role played by pollen when considering all the possible reasons for the wasting away of bees. Pollen plays an essential role in feeding because it is the only source of protein for bees. It helps them to develop, feed their larvae and young bees.

In 2005, so as to assess the importance of the quality and diversity of feeding for the vitality of bees, BASF decided to test what was to become the first apiarian fallowing area in the Loiret, with the partnership of the Rucher Ecole d’Orville. 27 hectares were planted with plants that were selected for the very high nutritious quality of their pollen (sainfoin, white sweet clover, phacelia, hybrid clover). The first measures realized in Orville showed a 7% increase in the production of honey against a 35% decrease in the undeveloped control zones.

Reassured by this statement, BASF then decided to be part of and support the initiative launched by Philippe Lecomte, an apiarist who founded the "Réseau Biodiversité pour les Abeilles" (the Biodiversity Network for Bees) which gathers together apiarists, farmers, agricultural organisations, local authorities, town councils…The Biodiversity network today numbers 275 partners in 42 departments.

(More information…www.jacheres-apicoles.fr).