Norway's capital, Oslo, is pioneering the world's first 'bee highway'—a network of flower-filled routes, green roofs, and balconies designed to provide safe passage and sustenance for endangered pollinators. The initiative, led by environmental group Bybi, aims to counteract the loss of habitats caused by urban development.
Agnes Lyche Melvaer, head of Bybi, explained the project's urgency: 'We are constantly reshaping our environment to meet our needs, forgetting that other species also live in it. To correct that we need to return places to them to live and feed.' The highway includes 'feeding stations' like Abel's Garden, a city centre square now planted with sunflowers and marigolds by locals and schoolchildren.
Participants—including state bodies, companies, and individuals—can log their contributions on a website (polli.no), which maps the bees' route across the city. One participant, a major accountancy firm, has installed flowering Sedum plants and two beehives on its 12th-floor terrace, housing around 45,000 worker bees. Accountant Marie Skjelbred, who championed the project, noted that the bees produce only a spoonful of honey in their 60-day lifespan, but their pollination value is immense.
While a third of Norway's 200 wild bee species are endangered, the country faces less severe threats than the US or other European nations. However, Christian Steel of the Norwegian Biodiversity Network criticised the government for promoting intensive agriculture, which he says harms bees, while relying on private initiatives like the bee highway. He stressed that agriculture depends on pollinators for food production, and vice versa.
Melvaer remains optimistic, invoking the 'butterfly effect': 'If we manage to solve a global problem locally, it's conceivable that this local solution will work elsewhere too.' The project highlights the critical role of bees in food production, with pollination valued at an estimated €153bn globally.
