Volunteer work to protect endangered wild bees
Parc de la Pépinière, Vaulruz
Environment
In the Gruyère region, volunteers are restoring a discovery trail that provides an urgently needed habitat for wild bees. A good deed in a forest of the Parc de la Pépinière that benefits both the bees, which are threatened with extinction, and the numerous helpers.
The restoration was a success! In mid-April, numerous helpers came together in Vaulruz to widen the path in several places and secure it with wooden planks in particularly steep areas. Among them was Kevin, who works as a scientist at ETH. “I’d heard about UBS Helpetica and found this project on the website”, he explains in the video. “I find it exciting to do something other than sitting in front of my computer at the office – and to do good at the same time”.
The following figures illustrate how important this project is: of the once more than 600 native species of wild bees, more than 10 percent are already extinct and 45 percent are endangered, according to a survey by the Freethebees association. A trend that coincides with the development in other European countries. The honey bee is especially at risk: “It practically no longer exists in the wild”, says the President of Freethebees, André Dunant.
The project aims to protect and promote the honey bee in nature, for example by creating habitats and increasing the diversity of flowers, thus providing food for the endangered insects.
The collaboration with UBS Helpetica not only supports the renewal of the discovery trail, but also helps to raise awareness of the issue. For example, you can find out how a bee colony lives in the forest, what different habitats the honey bee needs, or what happens in the course of a bee year.
Impressions
FreeTheBees is a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the honeybee in the wild with passion and expertise, and advocates for species-appropriate and natural husbandry where honeybees are kept as livestock. In a world where bees are increasingly under pressure, FreeTheBees highlights important aspects and solutions that can ensure the long-term survival of the honeybee. The organization’s solutions are innovative, independent and interdisciplinary. This creates incentive systems and training for sustainable beekeeping for nature enthusiasts and beekeepers, provides transparent information to the public on the subject and enhances the habitat of bees and many other species.