Eastern Europe Regional Trialogue 2017

According to a recent global report on pollinators conducted by IPBES, 70% of the plants that we eat and 90% of wildflowers depend on pollinators. The report also concluded that these pollinators are in decline and severely threatened throughout the world. It is critical that the results of the global assessment be shared, understood and debated by policymakers, scientists and practitioners on the ground and that such dialogue contributes to the policy reform and practical action necessary to reduce the threats to the pollinators and, ultimately, to food production and rural livelihoods.

Photo by Steven Falk

Photo by Steven Falk

This is why the Trialogues are so important, fostering dialogue and capacity-building across sectors and the communities of science, policy and practice. Eastern Europe was selected as the region to hold the first Trialogue on Pollinators, Food Security and Rural Development, using the related IPBES assessment findings.

The event was hosted by the Bosnia and Herzegovina Federal Ministry of Environment and Tourism as the IPBES Focal Point, with support from the Open Regional Fund for South-East Europe – Biodiversity (ORF-BD) which is financed by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.

The event brought together some 40 stakeholders from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova and Montenegro representing all three BES-Net communities of local farmers and beekeepers, scientists and policymakers with the aim to:

(a) Jointly frame the problems around pollinator issues of common concern.
(b) Generate innovative solutions.
(c) Identify policy options within a given context.
(d) Generate a commitment to concerted action.

The Action Document was jointly produced based on these productive Trialogue sessions. It elaborates a set of concrete actions to be implemented in tandem by three sectoral communities at different levels to better address issues concerning pollinators, food production and rural development in Eastern Europe.

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