Bee keepers and environmental activists staged a mock funeral in Paris yesterday for bees, to protest against the pesticides they say are killing insects crucial for the eco-system.
Some protesters, wearing beekeepers masks and overalls, lay motionless in coffins while others stood, heads bowed in respect as a bugle played during the ceremony at a garden near the Les Invalides museum.
Green campaigners say bee colonies in western Europe have been ravaged by the use of neonicotinoids, a group of pesticides based on the chemical structure of nicotine.
Beekeepers in France have pressed the government to take more action.
“It’s been talked about for 20 years now but nothing’s been done about it,” said one campaigner.
“There’s going to be a big blowout and in the very short term,” said another, both dressed in beekeeper suits.
An EU court has upheld a partial ban on three neonicotinoids, saying that the European Commission had been right in 2013 to restrict their use.
The restriction means they cannot be used on maize, rapeseed and some spring cereals.
Crop chemical companies have argued that real-world evidence is not there to blame a global plunge in bee numbers on neonicotinoid pesticides alone.