– Aggelina, do you have any background, and you are working on the redefinition of the urban landscape?
Aggelina – My background is related to bees. It started in 2011 from a simple curiosity and it ended up with me taking my first beekeeping diploma at the Institute of Agricultural Sciences (in Athens), where I did an intensive course. At that time, I was studying psychology, but I got excited about this lesson. What stimulated my interest the most was not only how they build their societies but also how they communicate with each other. So, from studying psychology, I decided to make a shift and become an animal behaviourist. I went to Scotland where I studied, I did research on the bees in Scotland, America and Spain, as well as taking part in some educational programmes at the University of the Aegean in Lesvos.
– How come you chose bees from all the animals?
– I had a teacher who was a great inspiration to me. His love for this insect was so great and he described everything with such excitement that it made me think that for someone to be so passionate about something, there must be some reason. So through some lessons on how bees communicate with each other, how they make decisions inside the beehive and how they inform other bees where there is food, a new world was opened to me on how these social creatures that are not humans live. There is a balance in what’s happening in their community, and the way they communicate is very clear. When one of them wants to communicate some information, the rest of them understand what’s going on. The relation that bees have with food and ecosystems is also very interesting. They are the basis of the latter, and if we remove them from the equation, the ecosystems will collapse. And that’s what we want to show through the Bee Camp. The relation we all have as organisms. We are not beings that operate independently, we all belong to an ecosystem.
– How did the Bee Camp start?
A. – It started in January 2018 on the occasion of a grant we received from the Start Create Cultural Change programme, which funds individuals to implement actions and initiatives in Greece. Our goal is to bring the city’s inhabitants closer to nature and to make Athens more hospitable to the pollinators (bees).
– In which ways do you achieve that?
A. – One of our actions is the creation of bee spots, which are safe havens for urban bees. They consist of honey plants that bloom from spring until autumn, providing bee food, and they include insect hotels, which are structures that can accommodate solitary bees, operating essentially as maternity hospitals. The different types of bees can find the holes in the reeds and leave an egg along with a little pollen and they cover it like a cocoon, either with soil, or with leaves or petals. Then, in the same way they place other eggs, which will be hatched and the next spring bees will come out. These structures are absolutely safe for everyone and there is no issue of stings or allergies. This is why we have already placed (them) in schools and everyone can put them on their balconies. Our goal is to create a biodiversity corridor within Athens through bee spots, while mobilizing the community. We currently have 9-10 bee spots installed.
Anthi – We also make seed bombs consisting of clay, soil and seeds of honey plants – wildflowers, namely, which are resistant – which can be thrown into spaces in Athens that are not green, but where there is soil. With the rain they decompose, the seeds remain and so the development of bee nutrition can begin. At the same time, we implement educational programmes for children aged 4-12, in cooperation with the Organization Earth. In our workshops, we also cover different aspects of bee life, through theatre, music, painting and the creation of documentaries and crafts.
– What is the message you want to pass on through your workshops?
Anthi – We want to inform the children that the raison d’être for a bee is not the honey, but its very existence. The bee exists, as we do. You can get to know them, although they are not the same as you. Also, all bees are not the same, as humans are not. We are not all the same, nor do we need to be. Everywhere there is diversity and it’s better not to try to adjust everything according to our own standards, because later, when they don’t conform (to our own standards) we consider them unfamiliar and complain that they “sting”.
A. – In addition, not all bees are yellow and black, nor do they all live socially. From the 20,000 species of bees present in the world, only 15% of them live socially and only 9 of these species are honey bees. There are so many bees, which are blue, red, green, fluffy, black, or small, which do not live socially as we think, but alone, under the ground, in burrows or in tree trunks. These bees have the same – perhaps greater – importance for the ecosystem, but no one is talking about them. In the workshops, so as not to refer to them with words like great biodiversity, we call them colourful bees.
– The past years we have heard a lot about the disappearance of bees. Why is this happening?
A. – There is a phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder and it concerns honey bees. This phenomenon was first reported in 2006 and describes the large reductions observed in honey bee populations – a fact that has large ecological but also economic implications. There is no clear answer why it happens, but some of the reasons are the inappropriate use of pesticides, the general way we cultivate our food and climate change. Likewise, as human activity expands, where they used to be wild flowers there is cement, the habitat is lost for all organisms. So, we are trying to create the environment that could naturally be present in the cities of today and that does not exist. We can all make changes, on a scale that suits us. There is something I can do at my own will, without waiting for someone to assign it to me. This is also the power of the seed bomb in the city.
– What is your next step?
A. – We want to see how and where exactly the biodiversity corridor can be created and take effect in Athens. We work with landscape architects, biologists and agronomists dealing with urban ecosystems, and we process different ideas and alternatives.
– Thank you. It was a very interesting discussion
