Bees Backed by Bristol Green Capital Momentum Group!

Bees have been officially recognised as a project area by Bristol Green Capital's Momentum Group.

A recent visioning meeting picked several key project areas that could contribute to Bristol's ambition to be European Green Capital. One of these project areas was bees which could contribute across many key initiative areas including built environment, business, energy/waste, education/community, biodiversity, food and natural environment.

Built environment projects are beginning to recognise that bees can be incorporated as part of living cities. Whilst new build projects and green field sites provide wonderful planning opportunities to incorporate bees in community, food, natural environment and biodiversity projects, it is also relatively simple to incorporate bees into existing cities.

Rooftops, roof re-builds, balconies, all provide scope either for incorporating suitable homes for bees or for planting foodstuffs that provide a bee season's worth of food stuffs for bees.

Anyone can get involved from young to old, building bumble bee boxes, solitary bee houses or honey bee hives, planting suitable vegetation or raising awareness amongst communities. Projects can be taken into schools to get children involved planting, building and learning.

Similarly waste collection areas can be planted up or house bees.

The food project area is also easily ticked using bees . Bees do not simply give us honey. All bees, honey, bumble and solitary, pollinate our plants including food plants.

Without bees we would not enjoy the diversity of food we have. Many crops are heavily reliant on bees to form a crop at all; for example bees pollinate 90% of apples. Without good pollination many fruits either do not develop or are deformed. Bees are the friends of allotment holders and gardeners.

Bees are not just an engaging creature but a vital one for human beings.

What we need now are resources including volunteers to get some projects going.