Since April 2021, the municipality of Roubaix has had a decree limiting the establishment of beehives on its territory.
The National Beekeeping Union (SNA) has chosen to challenge this decision before the administrative court.
Despite a meeting last week between the town hall and representatives of honey producers, the crisis is likely to escalate.
Beekeepers have the bumblebee.
Since April 2021, the municipality of Roubaix has had a decree limiting the establishment of beehives on its territory.
A decision that the national beekeeping union (SNA) has chosen to challenge before the administrative court.
And the crisis is likely to escalate despite a meeting last week between the town hall and representatives of honey producers.
“There is talk of the metropolis of Lille also adopting similar regulations for its 95 municipalities.
It would be very problematic for the profession”, draws, from the start, Jérôme Rohart, president of Syndical apicole of the Lille region (SARL).
But why does the city of Roubaix have such a grudge against bees, when for several years now the development of beekeeping has been encouraged at the urban level?
“The children were regularly bitten”
“We took this order following a complaint from a family, explains Alexandre Garcin, assistant in charge of the file in Roubaix.
The neighbor had a beehive in a small adjacent garden and the children were regularly bitten when they played outside.
The decree therefore modified the provisions of the Rural Code in the North: limitation to three hives per beekeeper and prohibition on owning a hive less than 5 m from a dwelling, instead of the regulatory 3 m.
For Alexandre Garcin, this decree aims to manage neighborhood problems, but also, to "promote biodiversity".
“When there are too many hives, solitary bees like bumblebees or coal bees disappear,” he explains.
The chosen one refers to a study carried out by Isabelle Dajoz, a researcher from the Institute of Ecology and Environmental Sciences in Paris.
For three years, the scientist observed the frequentation of pollinating insects on various green spaces in the capital.
“The more hives there are around, the less frequent are the visits of other pollinators,” she notes.
Officially, there are 19 beekeepers
An argument that the union strongly contests.
“It is not enough to reduce the number of hives for the pollinating insects to automatically return.
It's more complicated than that.
They also need special conditions to settle in a place,” assures Jérôme Rohart.
In the meantime, there are a few consensus solutions.
The city of Roubaix thus offers to participate in collective apiaries installed in the municipal cemetery.
Jérôme Rohart pleads, for his part, for the use of industrial wasteland.
“The city tells us that it is possible, but there is nothing to officially record”, he denounces.
So are there too many beekeepers in Roubaix?
This is the feeling of the town hall.
“Roubaix is 13 km2 and it is estimated that no more than 3 hives per km2 are needed”, slips the deputy mayor who counts at least forty hives.
For its part, the union claims only seven members in the city.
Contacted, the prefecture provided us with another figure: in 2020, 19 honey producers were officially declared.
At two hives each, the account is good.
In the meantime, each year in France, 300,000 colonies of bees disappear, according to the network “A roof for bees” which encourages the establishment of hives.
Because, in absolute terms, the economic and ecological service provided free of charge by bees and other pollinators is estimated at 130 billion dollars.
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