(1) Background: Bees are the primary animal pollinators in most ecosystems, and honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) are important providers of pollination ecosystem services and products. Climate change is one of the major threats for honey bees. (2) Objectives and methods: Qualitative research using focus group discussions was carried out in northwestern Italy, to investigate the beekeepers’ perceptions of climate change effects, the relevant management adaptations, and the main issues affecting the sector. (3) Results: Beekeepers reported several consequences related to severe weather events (weakening or loss of colonies; scarcity of nectar, pollen, and honeydew; decrease or lack of honey and other bee products; greater infestation by varroa; decline in pollination), making it necessary to provide supplemental sugar feeding, intensive transhumance, more effective and sustainable techniques for varroa control, and increased production of nuclei. A strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis was completed, displaying the factors able to strengthen or weaken the resilience of the beekeeping sector to climate change. (4) Conclusions: Thanks to their strong motivation and collaborative attitude, beekeepers succeed in adopting farm and bee hive adaptation strategies that are able to limit the climatic adverse effects. However, these findings highlight how the institutional and financial support for the beekeeping sector should be strengthened and better targeted.

No abstract

The EU has long-recognised the functions and contributions of beekeeping in sustainable rural area development. In 2018, the EU adopted the Pollinator Initiative to strengthen its pollinator conservation policies. To support the design of effective rural development actions, this work describes and tests an easy-to-apply, mixed-method tool for use with SWOT analysis. A two-step methodology was trialled with beekeepers in Piedmont Region (NW Italy). In step one, two independent groups of beekeepers operating in separate protected and intensive agricultural areas completed a SWOT matrix. In step two, three expert panels (beekeeper association leaders, honey market organisation leaders, and entomologists) prioritised the effects of the SWOT items with a quantitative weighting and rating process. Results suggest that the sector needs better-targeted incentives and that ‘soft’ policies on extension, advisory, and institutional measures could play a relevant role. The method was also confirmed as suitable for use with non-expert evaluators, such as policy officers and practitioners.

Direct sales are a widespread and important typology of the socalled alternative food networks. They can take two basic forms: consumers going to buy agricultural products at the farm (on-farm sales) and farmers selling their products in urban areas. We investigate the territorial distribution of direct sales practices (on-farm and off-farm) in Piedmont (Italy) and we assess the main determinants of these choices via probit models, separately for on-farm and off-farm sales. The explanatory variables comprise structural characteristics of the farms, type of farming, characteristics of the operators and of their products, and the proximity to urban and commercial areas. The most important factor affecting these choices is the type of farming (TF). The effect of other variables differs according to the TF. Conditional on it, other significant variables are generally farm location, organic farming and, especially for on-farm direct sales, the complementarity with agro-tourism and recreational activities. Operators' and farm characteristics are found to affect the choice of selling directly rather weakly. [EconLit citations: Q13, Q12, R12].

All these data support the ecological role of nectar and honey in nature: protection of the gynoecium from pathogens and preservation from degradative processes, respectively. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.