> The information concerning France is credited to Dr. Anne Alix, Ministry of Agriculture, France. 

Actually, Alix is listed as the Coordinator of the entire project. But I would strongly suggest that everyone should read the report and consider the merits of its arguments, before launching into personal attacks on the various authors and signatories. If the report has merit, it scarcely matters whose names are attached. 

One of the key points it makes is the decline of honeybees correlates directly to the decline in profitability and the increase in the cost of maintaining healthy colonies. Further, they point out the need for better training of beekeepers in the management of varroa and varroa related diseases. 

Finally, they point to the direct correlation in the rise of beekeeping in Asia to the decline of beekeeping in Europe and the USA. Here is what they say:

Aizen MA, Harder LD. 2009 conclude that that declines in the stock of domesticated honey in some
European countries reflected on-going abandonment of apiculture in the face of competition from
cheaper imported honey. This is supported by the data on the both the increased efficiency of honey
production worldwide and the faster growth in hive numbers in Asia, Africa and South America than in
North America and Europe.

They point out that, honey bee pests have to be considered as an extra economic burden borne by
beekeepers, which includes the costs of miticides, replacing hives, reintroducing queens, etc. However,
these costs may be relatively minor compared to the cost of human labour.

Their analysis explains the important contribution of economic globalization and protectionism to both
the positive global trend and spatial variation in the growth of the global stock of domesticated honey
bees as well as explaining the decrease in European and North American stocks.

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