Oslo to create a bee highway

2 july 2015,

People are increasingly committing themselves to protect one of the Planet’s most important pollinators: bees. And in Norway they are creating a green corridor exactly for them.

This is the first “bee highway” in the world. Experts may define it a green corridor, i.e. a naturalised area with plants and animals that gives bees a safe passage through a city.

This is what is happening in Oslo, Norway’s capital, where all citizens are asked to contribute to the creation of the world first bee highway. From house to company or school rooftops. From public gardens to cemeteries. People are encouraged to plant flowers and seeds as well as to build bee hives everywhere, in order to provide pollinators with food and shelter along the city’s main streets.

“We are constantly reshaping our environment to meet our needs, forgetting that other species also live in it,” said to the AFP Agnes Lyche Melvaer, head of the Bybi, an environmental group supporting urban bees in Northern Europe. “To correct that we need to return places to them to live and feed”.

The trend, in fact, is negative. In Europe the number of honeybees has dropped by 30 percent, which makes them an endangered species. But individuals are trying to make a difference. Many citizens gather together to promote initiatives aimed to create cities bee-friendlier cites. Not only in Oslo but everywhere: from Milan to New York, From Paris to Bratislava.

Actually, this project is the first to invite citizens to post their contributions as well as to group them and map them out.