Apimondia Open Source License
Click here for the open source license.
Press release by Apimondia
Rome, Italy, December 8, 2016:
The Beekeepers of the world organized in Apimondia have been collaborating to promote scientific, technical, ecological, social and economic apicultural development in all countries since 1895. The genetic resources of the honey bees used in beekeeping around the world are a result of generations of beekeepers working collaboratively in the associations represented by Apimondia. The Executive Council of Apimondia meeting in Mugla, Turkey on Monday 31 October 2016 unanimously voted to adopt the Apimondia Open Source Breeding Material (OSB) license for Apis mellifera and Apis cerana as a first step to implement an open source licensing system throughout the global beekeeping community.
“The past, present and future contributions of beekeepers in all regions of the world in conserving, improving and sharing the genetic resources of the honey bee can now be protected using a public license”, said Philip McCabe, President of Apimondia. “In Germany, we already have the first organization of bee breeders, who have made a commitment to base all exchange of breeding material on the new license”, said Walter Haefeker, Coordinator of the Apimondia Working Group on GMOs and impact on the beekeeping sector. “Apimondia is calling on all beekeeping associations to implement this license to protect their collaborative efforts to maintain healthy bees for the beekeeping community and society as a whole.”
Apimondia is also supporting an international collaboration to establish honey bee germplasm repositories using state of the art technologies, which permit storing honey bee semen for a long time and perhaps indefinitely. Given present and future threats to honey bee survival, it is imperative to guarantee the preservation of the various types honey bees that exist worldwide, including both commercial genetic lines and locally adapted and wild types. The Apimondia license will be used to ensure free and open access to the genetic resources collected for the scientific and the beekeeping community.
The members' resolution in the GdeB General Assembly of 2023, includes the inclusion of the Apimondia Open Source License in the breeding regulations as a recommendation to subject the breeding material to this Apimondia Open Source License on a voluntary basis.
Apimondia also supports international cooperation to establish honey bee gene banks using state-of-the-art technologies that allow drone sperm to be stored for a long time and perhaps indefinitely. Given the current and future threats to the survival of honey bees, it is essential to ensure the conservation of existing honey bee diversity worldwide. This includes commercial genetic lines and locally adapted wild species. The Apimondia license is used in this context to ensure free and open access to genetic resources for science and the beekeeping community.
The license and the associated documentation of possible uses are published on the Apimondia website: