Beekeepers put ERA on notice

Seven beekeeping and environmental organisations have formally accused the Environment and Resources Authority of failing to do a job the law already gives it: protect the Maltese honeybee, a species found only here and named Malta’s national insect in 2024.

The accusation came in a letter sent to Prime Minister Robert Abela, Environment Minister Miriam Dalli and Agriculture Minister Anton Refalo. The signatories included the Malta Beekeepers Association, Beesavers Malta, Friends of the Earth Malta and the Maltese Honeybee Conservation Foundation, according to Newsbook. Times of Malta also reported the letter and listed seven groups in all.

Their complaint is not only that hornets are killing bees. It is that a protected species can be legally celebrated and still practically left to fend for itself.

The groups said ERA’s lack of action runs against subsidiary legislation S.L. 549.120, which protects the Maltese honeybee. They also cited what they described as officials being continuously unavailable and meetings so brief they led nowhere. Those are allegations from the organisations, not findings by a court or regulator, but they matter because they go to the centre of how Maltese environmental law often works in ordinary life: a rule is passed, a title is granted, and then someone waits for the machinery to appear.

In this case, the machinery is not abstract. It is nest control, coordination and people with time to answer the phone.

Beekeepers quoted by Newsbook described losses that are already material. Jorge Spiteri, vice-president of the Malta Beekeepers Association, said he lost 16 colonies in 2026. Full-time apiarist Denise Camilleri said only about three hives out of roughly 30 might still be salvageable. The letter warns that the oriental hornet poses an existential threat to the sector and raises concerns about the Asian hornet as well.

Malta is an island that likes symbolic protection. It can be sincere and still insufficient. Declaring the native bee the national insect gave the species a public dignity it deserved. The harder question is what that dignity obliges the state to do when the threat is no longer theoretical and beekeepers say they are absorbing the losses alone.

That question is sharper because ERA is not a cultural body or a heritage label. Times of Malta noted that the authority is the regulator responsible for flora, fauna and natural environments, as well as nationally protected species. If the authority lacks staff, money or operational tools, the letter says as much in its own way by calling for ERA to be given adequate resources if it does not have the capacity to address the situation.

Refalo has said his ministry is considering measures including hornet nest control in urban areas and support grants for beekeepers, according to Newsbook. Abela has also said the government is exploring solutions and will announce an action plan once an assessment is completed. The organisations are asking for something more definite: once the official number of lost colonies is confirmed in November, they want a fund for each colony lost.

That request has the bluntness of people who no longer trust ceremony. A bee on a coin is national symbolism. A lost colony is a ledger entry, a failed pollinator and, for some keepers, the end of the work. The letter asks whether Maltese protection means anything before the counting is finished.