Hazards of pesticides to bees

ICP-PR Honey Bee Protection Group 1980 - 2015 The ICP-PR Bee Protection Group held its fi rst meeting in Wageningen in 1980 and over the subsequent 35 years it has become the established expert forum for discussing the risk of pesticides to bees and developing solutions how to assess and manage this risk. In recent years it has enlarged its scope of interest from honey bees to many other pollinating insects such as bumble bees. The group organises international scientifi c symposia once in every three years. These are open to everyone interested. The group tries to involve as many countries as possible, by organising symposia each time in another European country. It operates with working groups studying specifi c problems and proposing solutions that are subsequently discussed in plenary symposia. A wide range of experts active in this fi eld drawn from regulatory authorities, industry, universities and research institutes across the European Union (EU) and beyond participates in the discussions. The proceedings of the symposia (such as these) are being published by the Julius Kühn Archive in Germany since the 2008 symposium in Bucharest, Romania. These proceedings are also accessible on internet, e. g., the 2011 Wageningen symposium is available on http://pub. jki. bund. de/index. php/JKA/issue/view/801. For more information about the Bee Protection Group, see the ‘Statement about the mission and role of the ICPPR Bee Protection Group’ on one of the opening pages in these proceedings.