FAO Director-General focuses on apiculture and forestry with visit to Slovenia

Ljubljana – The Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Qu Dongyu, paid a three-day visit to Slovenia that saw him engage with leading members of the local apiculture and forestry sector, two of the European country’s traditional industries.

On Monday, the Director-General met the president of the Slovenian Beekeeping Association, Boštjan Noč, and its two vice-presidents, Kozmus and Marko Alauf.

Beekeeping is an ancient and celebrated tradition in Slovenia, and the visit took place ahead of World Bee Day 2024, which is marked by the UN on May 20.

The Director-General and the Association’s leadership discussed how best to strengthen their collaboration, how to increase the visibility of the apiculture industry and how to draw attention to the importance of pollination and its links to climate change.

"I want to encourage you to work with FAO on how to promote bee-related agro-forestry," Qu said, noting that there’s a need for “non-agricultural people to understand that bees are not just about honey." 

The president of the association thanked FAO for its support as he briefed the Director-General on its work.

"FAO’s support is very important for us. We need partners who understand that we need pollination to support food production and eradicate hunger," Noč said.

On the second day of his trip to Slovenia, the Director-General visited ITF Enhancing Human Security (ITF), a humanitarian, non-profit organization established by the Slovenian government in March 1998 with the initial purpose to help Bosnia and Herzegovina in the implementation of the peace agreement and to provide assistance and support in post-conflict rehabilitation.

Joining Qu and ITF Director Tomaž Lovrenčič were joined by Andrej Simončič, Director of the Agricultural Institute of Slovenia, Valentina Cvjetkovič, Head of the Beekeeping Academy of Slovenia, and Nataša Uršič, Head of Project Empowering War Victims through Beekeeping at ITF.

Qu was provided with a short presentation of ITF’s work, including ways in which the organization is using apiculture to boost food security, as well as its efforts to assist in new conflict areas such as Ukraine and Gaza.

The Director-General then visited a cattle farm owned by the Lokar family for three generations.

Here, Qu underlined the fact that “disease control” and greater investments in value added products play a key role in this business.

During his visit here, Qu also met with the President of the Chamber of Agriculture and Forestry of Slovenia, Branko Tomažič, who reminded him that most of the agricultural industry in Slovenia is composed of small-holder farmers with 10 hectares or less, as well as the Mayor of the City of Litjia.

For the final day of his visit, Qu paid a trip to InnoRenew CoE, an independent research institute that looks at renewable materials and sustainable buildings, specifically innovative approaches to wood and its use, with the goal of transferring scientific knowledge into industrial practice.

Here he visited its lab and spoke to its engineers before receiving a presentation on how the institute’s work is aligned with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The Director-General had a chance to talks to various leading figures from Slovenia’s agricultural sector, including the Minister of Agriculture, Mateja Čalušić, and the Director of the Slovenian Forestry Institute, Nike Krajnc.

Qu urged his hosts to do more than just use forestry for preservation purposes. “We need to do agro forestry first,” he said as he invited them to work closely with FAO’s forestry division to develop their industry.

His final engagement in Slovenia on Wednesday took him to a local wine producing farm, Vina Bordon, in Dekani.