Guerlain has joined forces with UNESCO and Angelina Jolie as the Godmother of the 2021 promotion of beekeepers, on a state-of-the-art, female beekeeping entrepreneurship programme called “Women for Bees”. Taking place in the organisation’s Biosphere Reserves, it will be led with
the help of the French Observatory of Apidology (OFA) and will support beekeepers from Russia to Ethiopia to Cambodia.
Due to be set in motion on June 21, the 30-day training taking place at the OFA, located in the “Massif de la Sainte-Baume” in Provence – France, will welcome 50 women within five years, from five different UNESCO biosphere reserves each year.
Each participant will acquire the theoretical and practical bases of the various aspects of beekeeping, including the running of a professional apiary thanks to the OFA Beekeepers’ expertise. The objective is to empower women through expertise-driven and sustainable professional activity.
At the end of the training, the participants will have acquired all the protocols allowing them to sustain their bee colonies, become fully professional beekeeper-entrepreneurs as well as members of an international network of female beekeepers, and share their skills and knowledge to help train others.
By 2025, 2,500 hives will have been built within 25 UNESCO Biosphere Reserves and 125 million bees will have been restocked. The 50 women to graduate by that year will have been trained and supported in establishing their own beekeeping operations – whilst participating in a vital, socially beneficial project.
