The pollination project of Santa Maria da Feira covers 40,000 m2 in several companies and institutions

The ‘Good for Beesness’ urban pollination project, with which the municipality of Santa Maria da Feira promotes more sustainable and bee-friendly habitats, already involves 40,000 square meters in several local companies and local institutions.

The information is provided by this municipality in the district of Aveiro, which in 2022 developed the first pilot experience aimed at creating green spaces that, with native species, are more sustainable in terms of gardening and maintenance costs, and also increase the population of insects responsible for spreading pollen and fertilizing plants, resulting in seed production and fruiting.

Playing with the homophony of the English terms "Business/Negócio” and "Bees/Abelhas”, the name of the project bets on the idea that habitats suitable for pollinators are "good for bees” and "good for business”, and eight entities from Santa Maria da Feira agree with the premise, meaning the initiative already involves more than 40,000 square meters of gardens and green spaces tailored to this mission – as is the case at the Forvia automobile components factory, at Hospital São Sebastião and at the private clinic Atrix.

According to the Mayor of the City Hall of Santa Maria da Feira, Amadeu Albergaria, "this is about demonstrating, in practice, that gardens full of grass and exotic plants, appart from becoming more expensive and consuming more water, harm communities of bees and other insects that they are responsible for pollination and decisive for the success of agriculture”.

That is the reason why the municipality is teaching participating entities to adapt their green spaces and take care of them in order to attract bees, butterflies and other insects whose population is declining "due to urban expansion, pollution, climate change and use of pesticides”.

With technical consultancy from the company NBI – Natural Business Intelligence, which provides training to companies on the plants adapted to each location and the best methods to maintain them, the 'Good for Beesness' project aims to reverse the decline in the pollinator population by 2030 – as is, in fact, the objective of the European Ecological Pact, approved in 2020 to restore ecosystems and biodiversity, and also of the Natural Restoration Law, signed in February 2024 to protect at least 30% of the European Union's land.

"All decision-makers – whether political, business, educational, etc. – must be aware of what is happening in Europe and on a global scale, so it is everyone's responsibility to create these recovery habitats in urban space, since bees and these insects are essential to fruit trees and the creation of a series of other foods”, highlights Amadeu Albergaria.

In addition to green areas in companies, the project also covers roundabouts in public space allocated to the LusoPark and PERM industrial zones. In these spaces, native plants that are particularly attractive to the 82 pollinator species identified in the municipality of Santa Maria da Feira are being introduced, among which is the holly ('Ilex aquifolium'), Douro manholes ('Antirrhinum graniticum'), the queiró ('Erica umbellata') and the gorse ('Ulex europaeus latebracteatus').

NBI experts believe that "renaturalized and more authentic" green spaces will increase communities of reference pollinators such as the green-eyed bee ('Anthophora bimaculata'), the common hoverfly ('Episyrphus balteatus') and the fritilária-dos-lameiros ('Ephydryas aurinia'), as well as other bees from the Apidae, Andrenidae and Halictidae families, the so-called bee flies from the Bombyliidae family and the Syrphidae flower flies.

"We hope that more companies will join this project, which always includes our initial training, but ordinary citizens can also get involved in this effort, not only by the way they take care of their gardens, but also by photographing the pollinators they find, in order to help the scientific monitoring of their populations”, concludes the Mayor.