Are you counting bees?
May 19, 2016
The Great British Bee Count starts today (19 May). Organised by Friends of the Earth it aims to help people recognise our common bee species and appreciate their diversity (there are more than 250 species in Britain). You can also find out ways to help our bees.
Bee expert Professor Dave Goulson will be our key note speaker for the South Downs Research Conference on 6 July 2016.
Professor Goulson said:
“Britain’s bees are facing multiple threats, from loss of flower meadows and quiet places to nest, and from the many pesticides used in most modern farming. The good news is that we can all play a part in helping them.
“Making our gardens and allotments more friendly to bees is easy to do – and can help make a real difference. If you don’t have a garden you can ask your school, housing association or council to create bee friendly spaces.”
Find out more about the South Downs Research Conference 2016
Professor Dave Goulson has published more than 240 scientific articles on the ecology and conservation of bumblebees and other insects. He is the author of Bumblebees; Their Behaviour, Ecology and Conservation, published in 2010 by Oxford University Press, and of the Sunday Times bestseller A Sting in the Tale, a popular science book about bumble bees, published in 2013 by Jonathan Cape, and now translated into German, Dutch, Swedish, Korean, Chinese and Danish. This was followed by A Buzz in the Meadow in 2014.
Goulson founded the Bumblebee Conservation Trust in 2006, a charity which has grown to 8,000 members. He was the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council’s Social Innovator of the Year in 2010, was given the Zoological Society of London’s Marsh Award for Conservation Biology in 2013, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2013, and given the British Ecological Society Public Engagement Award in 2014. In 2015 he was named number 8 in BBC Wildlife Magazine’s list of the top 50 most influential people in conservation.