Grant Map EU

The Ukrainian-Polish borderland within common ecological system of the Carpathian Mountains has great variety of floraand fauna that due to the specific natural environment have morphological and behavioral features. One of the aboriginal representatives of the Carpathians nature is the Carpathian bee (also called “Carpatka”). Changing climatic conditions, use of pesticides, crossbreeding have caused the low level of purebred Carpathian bees (about 40 %). Therefore, there is a need to preserve and popularize breeding of aboriginal Carpathian bees as a part of natural heritage of the region. Another challenge is decreasing interest to the beekeeping among young people in spite of rich beekeeping traditions of the Carpathian region. Popularization of beekeeping and traditional bee-products is also required to draw attention to the problem of preservation of the Carpathian bee population. The project is aimed at the creation holistic approaches to preservation of the local aboriginal Carpathian bee breed along with promotion of the beekeeping traditions in the Carpathians. The main project outputs are: (1) cross-border events aimed at the promotion of natural heritage (honey festival in Kolochava, final conference in Kosiv, workshop in Rzeszow); (2) studying the breed composition of the high mountainous Carpathian apiaries and determining the level of variability of the breed in the context of several seasons; (3) two open area exhibitions of beehives representing history of beekeeping in the Carpathians; (4) three developed tourist routes including the main tourist locations related to history and presence of beekeeping; (5) promotional publications for attracting the visitors. The local authorities, residents of Zakarpattia and Ivano-Frankivsk regions, Podcarpackie voivodeship, tourists, scientists will benefit from the project implementation. The project activities require the cross-border partnership to sharing best practices.