Dear citizens of Bee Friendly Cities,
With the final conference “A way to a holistic transformation into green sustainable cities” that was organised in virtual form on the 11th of May 2021 we concluded the two and half year journey. Interest from residents of over 50 European cities for participation in the conference was special confirmation of our work. A transparent overview of conference materials such as speakers’ presentations, videos and other materials in the form of the conference agenda with links to each speaker’s materials is available HERE.
Shortly about the conference:
The conference was opened with a welcome speech by Marko Alauf, vice-president of Slovenian Beekeepers’ Association and Dejan Crnek, deputy mayor of the City of Ljubljana and later five sessions followed. First, eminent international speakers from URBACT, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, APIMONDIA and Slovenian Beekeepers’ Association presented development trends. In the second session Ljubljana’s BEE PATH, which became a network of stakeholders, a touristic and educational path, an educational programme, as well as a “think tank” and an “incubator” for development of new entrepreneurship ideas, and further developed into the BeePathNet partnership, was presented by Maruška Markovčič from the City of Ljubljana, the BEE PATH initiator and BeePathNet project manager. Experience of this good practice transfer and its adaptation to five EU cities – Amarante (Portugal), Bydgoszcz (Poland), Cesena (Italy), Hegyvidék – 12th District of Budapest (Hungary) and Nea Propontida (Greece), with different social character, bee types and citizens perceptions towards bees, was presented. In the next panel seven members of Ljubljana’s BEE PATH: Cultural centre Cankarjev dom, Association Urbani čebelar, University Botanic Gardens Ljubljana, The BTC Company, Association Eneja, National Veterinary Institute and Zavita Ltd presented their work. We concluded the conference with a look beyond BeePathNet – towards a Bee-friendly city network by the project’s lead expert Klemen Strmšnik.
