Another highlight is BeePathNet Reloaded final conference. You can watch recordings and learn about sustainable urban development topics. All nine EU cities, that transferred Ljubljana’s urban beekeeping good practice, later discussed on their future plans and activities. They are all the founding members of the international Bee Path Cities network – a network of urban authorities that are good for pollinators and therefore good for people that was officially launched on 25th October 2022. Does your city support the Bee Path Cities philosophy? If so, join us today! Find out more at https://urbact.eu/bees.

The newsletter is available in English and all 5 partner languages:

Български, English, Hrvatski, Italiano, Polski, Slovenščina

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Find out more on the Bee Path Cities network and how to join – go to https://urbact.eu/bees

The article is available in English and all 5 partner languages:

Български, English, Hrvatski, Italiano, Polski, Slovenščina

The final conference titled 'EU cities - good for BEES is good for PEOPLE, a transformation into green sustainable cities’ was the conclusion of a year and a half long journey of the BeePathNet Reloaded project. On the 25th October 2022 we met in hybrid form where we were joined by residents of over 45 cities and 17 different countries worldwide.

The conference was opened with a welcome speech by Dejan Crnek, deputy mayor of the City of Ljubljana and Peter Kozmus, Slovenian Beekeepers’ Association and the vice president of Apimondia.  Maruška Markovčič, the project initiator and coordinator presented the journey from Ljubljana’s BEE PATH to the BeePathNet Reloaded partnership.

In the following session eminent speakers Adele Bucella (URBACT), dr. Fani Hatjina (APIMONDIA) and dr. Danilo Bevk (National Institute of Biology) talked about different aspects of sustainable urban development. Participants then discussed different aspects of urban beekeeping with the aim of ensuring sustainable and environmentally friendly cities.

After the break project partners from BeePathNet Reloaded presented the work they did on their bee paths and the challenges they faced. Ivan Doktorov (Bansko, Bulgaria), Mara Sugni (Bergamo, Italy), Helena Kolenić (Osijek, Croatia), Edyta Wykurz (Sosnowiec, Poland); and Branka Trčak and Nina Ilič (Ljubljana, Slovenia) all shared their experiences with the transfer of the good practice.

All 9 cities, that transferred Ljubljana’s urban beekeeping good practice, obligated themselves to keep on implementing pollinators friendly activities also after the official project’s end and to spread the movement round Europe. To set the common understanding and role of this partnership, Vesna Erhart, network communication officer presented the key principles and aims of the Bee Path Cities international network philosophy. The network was officially launched by Nataša Jazbinšek Seršen, head of the department for environmental protection in the City of Ljubljana. With this all EU cities are invited to join the international network of Bee Path Cities and follow in founding members’ footsteps.

In the round table all 9 partner cities (BeePathNet and BeepathNet Reloaded) presented the situation regarding pollinators and the effects the project had on their cities. It was moderated by Klemen Strmšnik, URBACT lead expert, and Ed Thorpe, URBACT expert and its key point was discussion of future plans at city level and common activities of the newly established network Bee Path Cities. In Ljubljana we were joined by Maruška Markovčič (Ljubljana, Slovenia), Attila Varga (Hegyvidek, 12th District of Budapest, Hungary), Elisavet Papoulidou (Nea Propontida, Greece), Tsvetanka Obetsanova (Bansko, Bulgaria), Mara Sugni (Bergamo, Italy), Helena Kolenić (Osijek, Croatia) and Edyta Wykurz (Sosnowiec, Poland). Joining us online were Justyna Olszewska (Bydgoszcz, Poland), Elena Giovannini (Cesena, Italy) and Ana Lirio (Amarante, Portugal).

More info is available on the following webpages:

• BeePathNet Reloaded project: www.urbact.eu/beepathnet-reloaded
• Bee Path Cities international network: www.urbact.eu/bees

Key final conference and BeePathNet Reloaded outputs:

• Conference Programme (EN, SI)
• BeePathNet Reloaded Final book (EN, SI)
• Evolving into a Bee Path City – short guidelines (EN, SI, BG, DE, EL, ES, FR, HR, HU, IT, PL, PT)*
• Bee Path Cities Philosophy (EN, SI, BG, EL, FR, HR, HU, IT, PL, PT)

Comments: In addition to the English and Slovenian language version the short guidelines and the Bee Path Cities Philosophy will be available in several other EU languages by mid-December on the international network webpage www.urbact.eu/bees.

Conference videos and presentations:

You can choose between videos in English and Slovenian language. Link to the presentation is under speaker’s name.

Welcome speech

• Dejan Crnek, deputy mayor of the City of Ljubljana (EN, SI)
• Peter Kozmus, Slovenian Beekeepers’ Association (EN, SI)
• From Ljubljana’s BEE PATH to the BeePathNet Reloaded partnership. Maruška Markovčič, Ljubljana BEE PATH initiator and BeePathNet Reloaded project manager, City of Ljubljana (EN, SI)

Sustainable Urban Development for Pollinators and Citizens

• URBACT – the Honeypot for European Cooperation. Adele Bucella, Head of Unit in the URBACT programme secretariat (EN, SI)
• How Urban Development Focusing on Nature can Help Humans and Bees; Examples and Lessons Learned; Dr. Fani Hatjina, the President of APIMONDIA’s Bee Health Scientific Commission and the ULG coordinator for Nea Propontida (EN, SI)
• No Pollinator Diversity Means no Food Security. Dr. Danilo Bevk, researcher at the Department of Organisms and Ecosystems Research, National Institute of Biology (NIB) (EN, SI)
• Discussion (EN, SI)

Transfer of Ljubljana’s Good Practice on Urban Beekeeping to EU Cities (EN, SI)

• Bansko Bee Path – Where Heritage meets Education. Ivan Doktorov, the Municipality of Bansko, Bulgaria
• In Bergamo, Citizens and Institutions Act Together for a ‘Bee and Pollinator-Friendly’ City. Mara Sugni, Botanical Garden, the Municipality of Bergamo, Italy
• The New Cradle of Beekeeping. Helena Kolenić, the Municipality of Osijek, Croatia
• Bees for Dummies. Edyta Wykurz, the Municipality of Sosnowiec, Poland
• Recent Evolution of Ljubljana’s Bee Path. Branka Trčak, the City of Ljubljana, Slovenia
• Api-Education Programme in Ljubljana. Nina Ilič, Institute Eneja, Slovenia

Bee Path Cities Philosophy and Bee Path Cities network launch (EN, SI)

Vesna Erhart, network communication officer

Maruška Markovčič, Ljubljana BEE PATH initiator and BeePathNet Reloaded project manager, City of Ljubljana

Nataša Jazbinšek Seršen, head of Department for Environmental protection, City of Ljubljana

Round table: Pollinators and Citizens – A Friendly Evolution of EU Cities (EN, SI)

Moderator: Klemen Strmšnik, URBACT lead expert and Ed Thorpe, URBACT expert

Representatives of Amarante (Portugal), Bansko (Bulgaria), Bergamo & Cesena (both Italy), Bydgoszcz & Sosnowiec (both Poland), Hegyvidek (Budapest, Hungary), Ljubljana (Slovenia), Nea Propontida (Greece) and Osijek (Croatia).

The article is available in English and all 5 partner languages:

Български, English, Hrvatski, Italiano, Polski, Slovenščina

Honey bread – in Portuguese Broa de mel is a Portuguese musical duet that became famous in the 80s and 90s with their love songs performed in several festivals such as the Festival RTP da Canção. Their songs talked about passion, ardour, union, romance, breezes, caresses and about “honeymoons”. These sweet themes which refer to happiness and wellbeing can make us feel honey.

The name of the group as well as their song lyrics are deeply connected with “broa de mel” a well-known Portuguese sweet made in many bakeries and pastry. Honey is commonly used in Portuguese confectionary in typical sweets such as “ginger and honey cake”, “honey and cinnamon cake”, “honey bread with egg cream filling”, “cake of olive oil and honey with cinnamon and nuts"," Algarvian honey cake "," honey and yogurt cake" and "honey and raisin cake" or "honey toast".

Honey has countless uses; from gastronomy to cosmetics, health and wellness…. or as a unique product. Increased demand for such products plays an important role in the local economy, as recognized by Alexandre Vieira, current president of Apimarão (Association of Beekeepers of Marão and Aboboreira), an association that brings together about 50 beekeepers. He is committed to making Apimarão more dynamic and through the association create logistical conditions that facilitate the work of honey producers, whether in terms of extraction or commercialization.

A forest engineer, and also a beekeeper himself, Alexandre Vieira sells pollen to tearooms, pastry shops or pharmacies but above all he is committed to the design and building of beehives. He produces apiaries regardless of size even small ones meant for self-consumption.

The mountains of Marão and Aboboreira and the slopes of the river Ovelha have flora of heather, rosemary, eucalyptus and orange blossoms. Honey produced there is a very special EU food product which has the EU label “Protected geographical indication (PGI)”.

In Amarante there are several others inspiring stories related to honey. There is a story of Alexandre Morais who today owns 200 hives and export products abroad, but it all started with a swarm entering his house. The successes story of the Dolmen store (Cooperative for Local and Regional Development); Tiago Morais, a professional firefighter and professed admirer of Nordic cultures that fulfilled his great passion for mead “the drink of the Gods” by producing it (Runas Hidromel). And nevertheless Inside Experiences, a local tour operator, who created two routes / tours to provide tourists with the honey experience.

Summarised from article by Nicolau Ribeiro (Municipality of Amarante)

Knowledge hub: Education

For a start we invite you to read a “pocket” version of guidelines with inspiring stories from 10 EU cities. It will be available in 12 EU languages by the beginning of December 2022. Though, to start a movement in your city, we recommend to deep-dive in full guidelines and tools described below.

Guidelines: The evolution steps toward a Bee friendly city - The transfer journey. Find out more how to develop bee products and incorporate them into the Bee Path. In the BeePathNet partnership there were several ways how to achieve this and they are described in the guidelines for the development of urban beekeeping.

Read chapter 8 Bee Products – The development of bee products in the Bee Path. There you will find how Ljubljana did it and some of its success stories such as Rent-a-beehive.si, Special house honey dessert of the restaurant Pri Kolovratu, cooperation with the Slovene Ethnographic Museum….

There are also cases studies from all BeePathNet partner cities Cesena (Italy), Bydgoszcz (Poland), Hegyvidek (Hungary), Nea Propontida (Greece) and Amarante (Portugal).

BeePathNet newsletters library - visit the thematic newsletters archive and find inspiring urban stories, ideas for small scale activities with a big impact, involvement of different stakeholders etc… To get closer to citizens, we translated them in several languages.

For more info visit our BeePathNet Reloaded webpage and follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

Some good practices for inspiration

Just for a first inspiration, we present some of our Bee-friendly cities good practices.

BeePathNet Reloaded partner – the city of Sosnowiec, Poland

Sosnowiec the city where everybody is part of awareness raising

In Sosnowiec the city administration has succeeded in attracting the interest of various institutions and citizens who all work together in raising awareness about bees and why we need to change our attitudes and way of thinking to provide a brighter future for all of us.

The institutions that have managed to incorporate the care for bees into their work can be found in many fields of work in Sosnowiec. Let us mention just a few of them: Zagłębie Media Library, Honey Comb Charity Shop, Museum of Medicine and Pharmacy, Sielecki Castle and many more. Even the Katowice Special Economic Zone has joined in the buzz and is sharing and spreading knowledge.

BeePathNet lead partner – the city of Ljubljana, Slovenia

Rent-a-beehive.si / Najemi panj.si

Urban beekeeper Gorazd Trušnovec gained entrepreneurial education through the Entrepreneurship Training Programme organized by the City of Ljubljana and the Cene Štupar Educational Centre, where he developed a special product called “Rent-a-beehive”.  The rent-a-beehive service is usually based on a one-year agreement, where customers can rent two or more beehives. For an annual rent, a client gets 10 large glasses of honey per hive, with the option of buying up all the remaining honey, and he/she can attend to all the beekeeping tasks with beekeepers explaining the individual operations. There are also mentoring packages, team-buildings for companies, workshops for children … Lately he started with a bee-keeping course as a rehabilitation program for prisoners.

BeePathNet partner – the city of Amarante, Portugal

Dolmen 

Dolmen is the name of a co-operative for local development located in Amarante, Portugal. It includes members from different sectors – from the public sector (like the Municipality of Amarante), other associations, SMEs, producers and individuals.

The mission of Dolmen is to promote local development through the valorization of local products, culture, heritage and people. Its operation focus is on rural areas, not only from Amarante, but also from other neighbour municipalities, such as Baião, Cinfães, Marco de Canaveses, Penafiel and Resende. Crucial to their business development is participation at national fairs, the fair of the hypermarket Continente and fairs abroad.