Who organized the activity? Ketevan Kochladze – Georgia Youth Eco Movement SAEM
When it took place: 11-12th of June 2016
Where it took place: Online, and In two villages of Samtskhe –Javakheti
Area Yvibisi and Daba, Georgia
What happened: Youth and Environment Europe inspires us to participate in Right To BE(E) Campaign. We decided to make online and particular activities. In this way it was easier to invite more participants who were interested to be involved in this action. We shared campaign details using our social media and blog. We shared our experience, our views on importance of bees in our life and how to keep environment bee friendly.
We were inviting for participation every interested person to share with us their activities.They were supposed to take pictures and sent to us. We get very interesting photos from young people who shared with us their thoughts and experiences.
Free ecosystem service provided by bees to humans for free, it is well known that pollination increases the yield of most fruit seeds and plants . To explore the role of pollination in fruit quality we decide to visit beekeepers family and strawberry farmplace. We have planned our activities for this campaign for end of the May but because of bad weather conditions we could not managed this before. finally the sun began to shine and here we go. We visited two villages of Samtskhe –Javakheti area in Borjomi municipality. Borjomi is old and small resort town in central Georgia which are located in Mountain area, especially famous for natural springs and mineral waters. Borjomi mineral springs were discovered by people over one thousand years ago. This is evident in the existence of seven stone baths which date back to the beginning of the 1st millennium A.D.Borjomi is Balneological place .The area is surrounded by Borjom-Kharagauli National park, which is the largest protected area in the caucasus region. The balneological health resort Borjomi is a picturesque place with large-leaved and coniferous forests surrounded with the majestic Caucasian mountains.
We visited village Kvibisi ,which is located near the Borjomi on 900 meters above sea level.There, we met one of the member of the Devidze family , they are 4-th generation beekeepers .There, in a clean environment, this family is following beekeeping and they are keeping about 100 beehives. As miss Marina told us : "Taking care of bees is a great art and consuming affair. In Devidze family, beekeeping is a tradition. My father had taught me the art of beekeeping and now I'm trying to teach it to young generations of my family and share my experience. The boys have accumulated considerable experience. Beekeeping is a practical affair and requires a lot of attention and experience gained through hard working. Scientists are often visiting us and they are completing their theoretical studies with exploring and observing our practical work. I will be happy if young people will be involved in this work and, for my part, I will share with them my experience .In my opinion in every village there should be one or two beekeeping family." Miss Marina gave us some helpful tips about beekeeping : about how important is to keep them in clean environment ,to avoid chemicals on fruits they use for food, to avoid feeding them with artificial food like sugar and etc. After rich informational conversation, we took some pictures and continued on our way to the next destination.
Next was resort village Daba which is located at 1025 Meters from sea level. Daba is the oldest village and a touristic place. The most famous place in Daba is St Giorgi ancient church. It is sheltered in the dense forest, like a bird in its nest, and not visible from the road. It is covered halfway by a cave. The carved inscription on the west wall says that the Daba church was built by the head of royal treasury of George V the Brilliant, in 1333.
Near the woods is situated a cooperative of strawberry farms,where they are growing eco friendly ,clean and unpolluted strawberries and other kinds of berries. This farm was founded within United Nations Development Programme grant by Irma Maghradze .The project aims to strengthen the capacity of forest-dependent local communities, so that they can create and develop alternative livelihoods through the sustainable use of forest resources. The idea of strawberry farm was Irmas discovery, before this she had a little garden of strawberries next to her home, and she says that to be high level from the sea level is great for berries. That's why she decided to make a farm in this place.The local youngsters are actively involved in this project and they shared their impressions about thei work with excitement.
Miss Irma hosted us and shared her experience with Georgia Youth Eco Movement-SAEMs members. She invited us to see strawberry fields and she gave us to try bright red, perfectly shaped strawberries, She presented masterclass and we were talking about how pollination by the insects increases the quality and shelf life of strawberries, as the honey bees living nearby strawberries field. As we know pollination promotes cell division and growth, increasing weight and firmness of the fruit. She explained us how to take care of berries and how important is role of bees during the strawberry flowering period.
Why do you want to help the bees? We decided to join this campaign because we wanted to explain the importance of the Bees in our everyday life. Very few people know what is going on with the world's bee population and the effect they have on our food supply. Bees are some of the hardest working creatures on the planet. Bees are responsible for pollinating about one-sixth of the flowering plant species worldwide and approximately 400 different agricultural types of plant. Lot sorts of fruit,nuts and vegetables are pollinated by honey bees, such as cherries , apples and almonds. Pollination is not just important for the food we eat directly, it's vital for the foraging crops, such as field beans and clovers, used to feed the livestock. An aesthetically pleasing thing is tha,t by pollinating flowers, Bees are magnifying the Planet. Our lives would be much different if bees didn't exist. As a great physicist and Albert Einstein said, "If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would have only four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man."
