Greenpeace: 150 Thousand People Took Action, Bees Saved

* Photograph: AA

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The campaign "We Are All in the Same Hive," which was launched by Greenpeace and demanded bans on three chemicals that cause bee deaths, has resulted in success.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has sent a "very urgent" notice to the directorates in the 81 provinces and announced that it banned use of the three chemicals.

In the notice, it has been stated that the decision was made as a result of "notifications by the acquis communautaire, beekeepers unions and related civil society organizations which state that these active substances should be banned as they are poisonous for bees and cause colony collapses."

The dates of bans

The ministry announced the dates of bans for the three chemicals:

* Clothianidin – July 31, 2019

* Imidacloprid – December 19, 2018

* Thiamethoxam – December 19, 2018

Greenpeace launched a campaign on August 2018, in which it demanded that use of three pesticides be banned. In four months, 150 thousand people signed the petition. Eleven civil society organizations published a declaration last week in support of the campaign.

CLICK - Joint Declaration by 11 Environmental Organizations: 'We are all in the Same Hive'

Greenpeace: 'This is a beginning'

Berkan Özyer, who is in charge of the Greenpeace Mediterranean Agriculture and Food Project, has said that the decision is pleasing:

"We will take this decision as a beginning and continue our works without a break. We will watch the implementation of decision, developments in the field.

"The decision makes wider exemptions than the EU for two of the three substances. In this regard, we will continue our communications centered on scientific findings and do our best to protect our environment, food and biodiversity."

In some regions, bee death rates reached 70 percent

Bees as pollinators are indispensable for the balance of nature. But according to a research conducted by the Uludağ University Beekeeping Development and Application Center, bee deaths have generally increased and bee death rates, which were around 20 percent for years, have reached 70 percent in some regions in Turkey.

The European Union banned the use of three pesticides in open agricultural lands. (TP/VK)