One Year Later, Angelina Jolie And Guerlain Continue To Fight For Global Bee Preservation

Final 12 months, I broke the information that heritage French cosmetics home Guerlain would companion with Angelina Jolie and UNESCO’s Girls for Bees Programme to assist counter the dropping charges of the world honeybee inhabitants. Now, one 12 months later, 11 girls who’ve been educated as beekeepers have graduated and can go into beekeeping coaching packages with the assistance of Jolie and a second €1m donation made by Guerlain.

This stage of the efforts will see the launch of the Cambodian part of this system. 12 of the brand new girls beekeeper trainees who’ve been chosen by the UNESCO workforce in Phenom Pen together with Jolie’s charitable basis within the area, the MJP Basis, will enter into six months of coaching which has been formally inaugurated by Jolie.

The overarching aims of the Guerlain x UNESCO Girls For Bees Programme is twofold: to create entrepreneurship and employment alternatives for girls whereas additionally working to repopulate dwindling bee populations, an insect which performs a essential position in pollination and, in consequence, meals safety. Based on IPBES Evaluation Report on Pollinators, Pollination and Meals Manufacturing, near 75% of all cultivated vegetation and 90% of untamed flowering vegetation depend upon pollinators, which incorporates bees.

“In 2021, we joined forces with UNESCO and actress and philanthropist Angelina Jolie to launch the Girls for Bees program with important targets for 2025–2,500 hives put in within the coronary heart of 25 UNESCO biosphere reserves, 125 million bees repopulated and 50 girls educated and supported in establishing their very own beekeeping operations,” says Cécile Lochard, Guerlain’s Chief Sustainability Officer.

“Following the primary coaching program in France and now this second one in Cambodia, the Girls for Bees program can have educated 18 complete beekeepers, all of that are properly underway of making their very own beekeeping operations worldwide. And on the finish of the primary 12 months of this system, we’re on monitor to have repopulated practically 25 million bees.”

Earlier this 12 months, Jolie—who’s the muse to the home and Godmother of the bee program—visited Cambodia to launch the 6-month coaching program for the 12 beekeepers the place she was joined by a graduate from this system’s inaugural class, beekeeper Aggelina Kanellopoulou. With Jolie’s assist, Kanellopoulou acted as a mentor to the brand new trainees and shared her experiences with them which included her training in one of the best practices in beekeeping.

As a part of the go to, the 2 went to Siam Reap, the Samlot District and the Tonle Sap UNESCO Biosphere Reserve which is a part of the Angkor Archeological Park. Jolie additionally stopped at native excessive colleges, forest conservation and biodiversity survey websites throughout the reserve and in addition joined a beekeeping session on the Guerlain Bee College within the Samlot District.

Jolie’s participation within the Guerlain x UNESCO Girls for Bees Programme got here full circle with this current go to because it was she who introduced Guerlain to the Southeast Asian nation in 2019 because the place to begin her work with the French home. Cambodia was the backdrop for his or her first Mon Guerlain business collectively and in the course of the go to, she and the Guerlain workforce met members of the MJP Basis in addition to the individuals of the communities which profit from the work the inspiration is doing.

Jolie’s ardour for Cambodia is partly to honor the motherland of her son Maddox who hails from there (the MJP in her basis’s identify stands for her son’s initials, Maddox Jolie Pitt). Jolie selected to base the inspiration within the Samlot Area as a result of it’s the world of the nation which had been most impacted by the Cambodian Civil Struggle.

As a part of its mission, The MJP Basis goals to counter the intense poverty which exists in rural areas of Cambodia. There are a number of facets to executing its mission which embody enchancment of well being and well being providers, training, agriculture, and ladies’s empowerment packages. There’s additionally a robust emphasis on the safety of the atmosphere and conserving wildlife within the space. Moreover, the inspiration educates farmers on methods to achieve the utmost output and utility from their livestock, land, and different assets and are additionally being educated to boost bees for honey manufacturing.

Each the MJP Basis and the The Guerlain x UNESCO Girls for Bees Programme do should fight sturdy Cambodian cultural values tied to wild honey with a purpose to obtain their missions concerning bee preservation. Using wild honey is intensive in conventional Cambodian medicines and beeswax for blessing ceremonies is deeply rooted within the tradition, a lot in order that honey-hunting is taken into account a long-standing ancestral custom.

However this honey-hunting together with deforestation and pesticides are the main threats to the inhabitants of honeybees in Cambodia, so the objective of all events concerned is to shift the worth system round wild honey in Cambodia via training, outreach and coaching which extends past the bee program trainees. Tour guides are additionally being educated as a part of a pilot program which makes use of the guides as disseminators of data to most people, together with vacationers, on the significance of native bee conservation.

Along with these long-term efforts, Guerlain is looking upon its supporters, prospects, and anybody who desires to assist bee preservation to buy their merchandise between Could twentieth (World Bee Day) and Could 22 (The Worldwide Day for Organic Range) throughout which 20% of all gross sales shall be donated to this system. Moreover, all gross sales of the limited-edition Huile-en-Eau Abeille Royale, whose bottle has been embellished with paintings designed by famed designer and artist, Tomáš Libertíny, will go to the bee program. Guerlain has additionally taken this initiative digital through an activation the place €20 shall be donated for each repost (with the hashtags #GuerlainForBees and #WorldBeeDay) of Tomáš Libertíny’s visible created for the home’s social media.