Leatherwood

Save the Bees Australia has collaborated with the Bee Collective to give you a taste of this limited edition honey-all while helping to save the bees. Bee Collective bees are antibiotic free and are not fed sugar - enough honey is left on the hives to keep the bees warm and fed during winter.

$1.00 from the sale of each jar of honey will be donated to Save the Bees Australia.

Purchase your taste of this threatened wilderness here.Find out more about Leatherwood below.

Leatherwood (eucrphyia lucida) is a rainforest tree that has evolved deep in Tasmania’s Gondwanan rainforest.

Unremarkable until it blooms – its flowers transform sparse, sticky branches into large floating moth-like white blossoms, lighting up gullies and turning this remote wilderness into a beacon for pollinators, especially bees.

Leatherwood nectar is highly valued not just for its taste, twice winning ‘Honey of the World,’ it also underpins Tasmania’s food security with the state’s AgriVision target for an agricultural sector worth $10 billion per annum at the farm gate by 2050. Bees are integral in providing pollination services towards realising this vision.

Leatherwood is not only rich in nectar, but also flowers at a time that bees need to build their strength leading up to Tasmania’s long cold winter.

Bushfires and climate change although a real and imminent threat, form only part of the story.

Tasmania has a long and contentious forestry history. Often referred to as the ‘forestry wars’- for decades the Forest industry and conservationists have been locked in an all or nothing battle.

Beekeepers, like Leatherwood trees, have been caught in the middle of this battle. Beekeepers need access to the Leatherwood forests growing amongst ancient Eucalypt trees that continue to be logged. Unfortunately, Leatherwood becomes collateral damage in these highly connected and specialised ecosystems.

Leatherwood trees take up to 20 years to produce nectar.

Bob Davey, founder of ‘Save our Leatherwood’ explains here how important leatherwood trees are to beekeepers and our agricultural sector.

What does this mean for the future?

Now, more than ever we need your support.

Help us by signing this petition. You can also read the Memorandum of Understanding between Tasmanian Beekeepers and Sustainable Timbers Tasmania here.

It will take all of us to stop politicians from re-igniting the forestry wars. We need leadership to realise our AgriVision target, not divisive political positioning.

You can purchase a taste of this threatened forest here with $1.00 from each sale donated to Save the Bees Australia.