Brian Ames wrote, <<So we hear so much about the losses in the EU and neonics/GMO's etc, so I looked that up too. 
http://www.pollinator.org/PDFs/OPERAReport.pdf
page 23 figure 5 shows a significant increase in the number of hives since 2000. I just don't see any data here that suggests an ongoing massive bee die off in the EU>>

Well, figure 5 is based on statistics from Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. How would they be a reliable source when only a few EU countries have any statistics concerning apiculture and most of those are recognised as being incomplete or unreliable?
Page 24 has a table of data which is claimed to come from EFSA. EFSA who themselves state, <<The main conclusions of the EFSA Project indicate that the surveillance systems in the EU Member States are, in general, weak. There is a lack of representative data at country level and comparable data regarding colony losses at EU level. There is also a general lack of standardisation and harmonisation at EU level as regards the data collected. No effective harmonised control system for bees has been set up to estimate the extent of bee mortalities or to prevent them as much as possible.
The Commission aims to start a pilot surveillance programme by the end of 2011.>>
 (http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2010:0714:FIN:EN:PDF)

Also quoted

CNDA Centre National de Développement Apicole, 149, rue de Bercy – F-75595 PARIS, a structure very few French beekeepers have ever heard of.
They said,<<At the moment in France, neither monitoring nor survey was released in order to assess bee losses. That is why the Health Committee of the CNDA (Centre National du Développement Apicole) has undertaken an
investigation into this issue during the winter 2007-2008 with a sampling of professional beekeepers. 168 professional French beekeepers …were randomly selected out of 782 beekeeping farms.>>

How many Beekeepers replied to the questionnaire? and anyway professional beekeepers represent only 2.5% of French Beekeepers. I am registered as a professional Beekeeper and I have never been asked by the state or anyone else what my losses are or have been or questioned on any other topic.
Under the Heading ‘Objectivity’ one would expect objective information from reliable sources and not this supposition based document from, “a major European private university” whatever that might be.

Bil (Rhone Region, France)

 

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