Case Study
BeeOdiversity
Improving environmental and human well-being
Partners Involved: Honeybees, wild bees and other pollinating insects; BeeOdiversity, Business organizations and public authorities
Type of Partnership: Win-Win for Public and Planet
Partnership Models: Data Partner, Nourisher, Sensor, Moneymaker
For the public, the bees provide valuable data sets to analyze the environment for free. In return, the implemented actions to reduce pollution in the monitored area indirectly contribute to preserving and enhancing biodiversity—including the reduction of the bee mortality rate to under 10%, compared with an average rate of 30% elsewhere in Europe.
Globally, three out of four crops grown for human food depend—at least in part—on pollinators. Pollination leads to the production of many fruits and vegetables that people across the world depend on for their food security. However, the pollinators—bees—have been disappearing at alarming rates. Numerous factors have been impacting the demise of bees, such as pollution levels.
Healthy bees are critical to securing global food supplies, and Dr. Bach Kim Nguyen—an internationally renowned expert on the demise of bees—has successfully decreased their mortality rate to under 10% (compared with an average of 30% in Europe).
In 2012, Nguyen launched the social enterprise BeeOdiversity to offer advisory services to companies, cities and public institutions on how to enhance biodiversity and improve human well-being by protecting pollinators, through a systemic, innovative and scientific approach in partnership with the bees.
The team developed a scientific tool called ‘BeeOmonitoring’ to monitor environments of a given area through analyzing samples from the beehives. Bees are not harmed during the process as only a small portion of pollen is retrieved through a special pollen trap in the hive a few times in a year. Through the samples, they are able to extrapolate data on the quantity and quality of floral biodiversity, bees reproduction rate, survival rate of progeny and pollution levels like pesticides and heavy metals.
Unlike traditional manual collection which is limited and costly, bees can provide valuable and massive amounts of data at scale and for free. Bees from a colony in a specific area visit approximately 4 billion flowers per year within a 1.5 kilometer radius, covering a 700 hectares zone; that’s the size of around 700 football fields!
According to the results of the data analysis, the BeeOdiversity team supports the stakeholders in reaching an agreement on a shared set of actions to implement to improve living conditions both for the people and the biodiversity, including the bees.
SDGs Targeted: SDG 2 Zero Hunger, SDG 3 Good Health and Well-Being, SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities, SDG 12 Responsible Consumption and Production, SDG 13 Climate Action, SDG 15 Life on Land
Links & Sources:
Case Study
BeeOdiversity
Improving environmental and human well-being
Partners Involved: Honeybees, wild bees and other pollinating insects; BeeOdiversity, Business organizations and public authorities
Type of Partnership: Win-Win for Public and Planet
Partnership Models: Data Partner, Nourisher, Sensor, Moneymaker
For the public, the bees provide valuable data sets to analyze the environment for free. In return, the implemented actions to reduce pollution in the monitored area indirectly contribute to preserving and enhancing biodiversity—including the reduction of the bee mortality rate to under 10%, compared with an average rate of 30% elsewhere in Europe.
Globally, three out of four crops grown for human food depend—at least in part—on pollinators. Pollination leads to the production of many fruits and vegetables that people across the world depend on for their food security. However, the pollinators—bees—have been disappearing at alarming rates. Numerous factors have been impacting the demise of bees, such as pollution levels.
Healthy bees are critical to securing global food supplies, and Dr. Bach Kim Nguyen—an internationally renowned expert on the demise of bees—has successfully decreased their mortality rate to under 10% (compared with an average of 30% in Europe).
In 2012, Nguyen launched the social enterprise BeeOdiversity to offer advisory services to companies, cities and public institutions on how to enhance biodiversity and improve human well-being by protecting pollinators, through a systemic, innovative and scientific approach in partnership with the bees.
The team developed a scientific tool called ‘BeeOmonitoring’ to monitor environments of a given area through analyzing samples from the beehives. Bees are not harmed during the process as only a small portion of pollen is retrieved through a special pollen trap in the hive a few times in a year. Through the samples, they are able to extrapolate data on the quantity and quality of floral biodiversity, bees reproduction rate, survival rate of progeny and pollution levels like pesticides and heavy metals.
Unlike traditional manual collection which is limited and costly, bees can provide valuable and massive amounts of data at scale and for free. Bees from a colony in a specific area visit approximately 4 billion flowers per year within a 1.5 kilometer radius, covering a 700 hectares zone; that’s the size of around 700 football fields!
According to the results of the data analysis, the BeeOdiversity team supports the stakeholders in reaching an agreement on a shared set of actions to implement to improve living conditions both for the people and the biodiversity, including the bees.
SDGs Targeted: SDG 2 Zero Hunger, SDG 3 Good Health and Well-Being, SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities, SDG 12 Responsible Consumption and Production, SDG 13 Climate Action, SDG 15 Life on Land
Links & Sources: