This Action Document is the result of the first BES-Net Trialogue which was held in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) on 18-20 October 2017 and involved fifty-two stakeholders from Albania, BiH, Georgia, Moldova and Montenegro. The BES-Net Trialogues are multi-stakeholder dialogues among the three communities of policy, science and practice that focus on specific policy questions at the national and regional levels (See Box 1 for more details on the BES-Net Trialogue). In Eastern Europe, this cutting-edge facilitation event brought together scientists, local farmers, bee-keepers, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and policymakers from the agriculture, plant protection and environment sectors.
Over the three days in Sarajevo, the Trialogue fully achieved its objectives of raising awareness about the relevance of the global findings of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES); sharing knowledge across the policy, science and practice communities; identifying regionally and nationally-relevant risks and opportunities for pollinators and pollination; and generating commitment to collaboration and action to protect pollinators in order to ensure sustained agricultural and food production. Participants highlighted the fact that this was the first time that they had ever come together to focus on pollinators as the lens for understanding the link between ecosystem services, agriculture and rural development, and they found it a powerful call to action. On the last day, the High-Level Breakfast provided a rare opportunity for high-level government authorities and international donor partners in the region to discuss the key messages emerging from the dialogue and to engender their support for local policy proposals.
