Projects
UrbanBEE – Promoting Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services and Societal Engagement Across Diverse Urban Ecosystems
Megvalósítás alatt lévő/Futó projekt
Summary:
Urban development poses significant challenges worldwide: cities in the Global North struggle with the legacy of industrialization and urban sprawl, while cities in the Global South face rapid population growth and severe socio-economic inequalities. In both regions, the decline of biodiversity and increasing environmental pressure represent serious concerns. Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) offer sustainable opportunities to mitigate these challenges by aligning natural processes with human needs.
The UrbanBEE project aims to implement an innovative, decentralized NBS model to restore and protect urban biodiversity. Within the project, thousands of bee hotels will be installed across various socio-ecological gradients in South African and European cities. These bee hotel networks simultaneously provide habitats for solitary bees and serve as tools for scientific research and community engagement.
Through active involvement of local residents and a citizen science-based approach, the project promotes the collection of biodiversity data, raises environmental awareness, and strengthens community participation in environmental protection. The data collected within the project reveal the distribution patterns of urban pollinators and how environmental (e.g. urban landscape structure) and social (e.g. socio-economic status) factors influence urban biodiversity.
The bee hotel networks function as “living laboratories,” enabling large-scale analyses and precise biomonitoring. At selected biomonitoring sites, we examine relationships such as the effects of climate, disease occurrence, habitat selection, and hotel design on the resilience of urban pollinators.
The UrbanBEE project places strong emphasis on involving local communities, NGOs, and municipal authorities to ensure that diverse perspectives are represented and that the proposed solutions are practically feasible. Its comprehensive and inclusive approach carries significant social relevance and provides flexible guidance for urban decision-makers in the effective application of Nature-Based Solutions.
