English translation below
I am happy to participate in this forum which adds to the efforts and activities to promote awareness and the importance of pollination services and pollinators. I am currently working as a consultant in Chile on this field, and regarding the progress in my country as to the forum questions, I can say the following:
1. Activities that promote pollinators: There is a program being implemented to increase the amount of honey flowers through the restoration and supplementation of floral diversity, with an emphasis on native forest species, developed by the Forestry Institute of Chile. The country has two Clean Production Agreements. The first aims to introduce sustainable practices for pesticide application in farms producing apples, almonds, kiwis, cherries and avocado that are demanding pollination services, in order to foster the activity of pollination agents. The second Agreement wants to incorporate in the horticultural sector in the central area, measures and clean production technologies that ensure food safety and increase production efficiency, preventing and reducing pollution. Regarding the next two questions, it seems to me that one answers the other. That is, to promote friendly practices is necessary to train the actors directly benefiting from pollinators services, inform the general public of the benefits of the services provided by pollinators and finally, seek state and private support for this promotion.
1. What training, support or information do you need to take up pollinator-friendly practices?
- Information: Answering questions like: What is pollination? Which are the pollinators? Why pollination is important? How (no matter who you are or what you do) can we contribute to the conservation and protection of pollination services?
- Training: We can say that it is necessary to train different actors from different levels on different practices, and that depending on this, formation is determined. There will be technical training for the development of practices in the field, theoretical training for approaching and proposing practices and awareness training to support their implementation.
- Support: It is of foremost importance to have the support of decision-makers, who ultimately showcase the issue in the scenarios where the adoption of practices is budgeted and the necessary resources are allocated. Even for those practices that do not require resources, because if the issue does not receive priority, adoption becomes more difficult. Of course, the support of the academia and researchers -who contribute to the approach and validation of practices- is also required.
السيد Claro Ricardo