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Urban Beekeeping and Its Impact on City Ecosystems

Cities are increasingly embracing environmentally friendly initiatives to promote biodiversity. One such initiative is urban beekeeping. In Europe, beekeeping has experienced a significant increase as a response to the current biodiversity crisis. Honeybees, key pollinators, are commonly used in urban beekeeping, which has led to debates about its sustainability due to potential competition with wild bees and other pollinators.

Key Findings from a Study on Urban Beekeeping in Switzerland:

• An analysis of the period from 2012 to 2018 showed a consistent increase in urban beekeeping, with a median hive increase of 69%. The total number of hives increased in 12 of the 14 cities in the study.
• It was found that the available urban green spaces (UGS) were not sufficient to maintain the growing number of hives. Cities like Lugano, Zurich, and Luzern faced a particularly high shortfall of UGS. The data suggested that only carrying capacities of more than 20 hives per square kilometer resulted in 50% of cells with a UGS balance.
• A comparison between the years 2012 and 2018 showed a clear expansion and densification of beekeeping. There was a median increase of 52% in the number of occupied cells, most of which were deemed unsustainable due to insufficient UGS.

Implications and Recommendations

• High densities of honeybee hives may eventually deplete existing resources both in natural and urban ecosystems, thereby negatively affecting other pollinators.
• Efforts to enhance urban beekeeping should take into consideration the available resources and sustainable densities to avoid the 'tragedy of the commons,' where unregulated exploitation can lead to resource depletion.
• There is an urgent need to create sustainable management strategies for urban beekeeping. This could be achieved through regulating hive numbers and densities, ensuring sufficient distance between hives, and enhancing floral resources and pollinator habitats in cities.
• Citizen engagement can play a crucial role in this regard by transforming lawns into grasslands, promoting wild plants in small vegetation patches, or creating new habitats.

Urban Beekeeping

Urban beekeeping is the practice of cultivating bees in city environments. It predominantly focuses on honey bees due to the long history of the practice, but it may also involve solitary bees such as mason, leaf cutter, and digger bees, as well as social bees like carpenter and bumblebees.

Key Facts:

• Urban environments offer bees a surprisingly diverse selection of pollen-bearing plants such as parks, playgrounds, backyards, street trees, and median strips. DNA samples collected from honey have shown that urban bees pollinate eight times more species than suburban bees.
• Urban beehives have been found to have higher winter survival rates and produce 56% more honey compared to rural beehives.
• Despite the effectiveness of urban beekeeping, its prevalence is limited due to a variety of reasons, including municipal restrictions and a lack of awareness.

Brief History of Urban Beekeeping:

• Human interaction with bees dates back to cave-dwelling people in modern-day Spain. Honey bees weren't native to the Americas but were introduced into English colonies in the 1670s.
• For generations, beekeeping was a critical part of family farming. However, with the rise of supermarkets, fast food, and agribusiness after WWII, people started to lose touch with the sources of their food, including honey and beekeeping.
• The call for city bees started gaining momentum in the 1980s in Paris. Experimental hives on the roof of the Opera Garnier were incredibly successful, leading to a new industry in France: Urban Beekeeping.
• In the U.S., the movement initially faced hurdles due to municipal legislation that restricted raising farm animals, including bees, in cities. However, with time and numerous advocacies, urban beekeeping has gradually spread around the world.

Despite the benefits, there are concerns over the sustainability of urban beekeeping due to resource competition between honey bees and wild pollinators. To mitigate this, there is a need for regulated hive numbers and densities, sufficient distance between hives, and enhanced floral resources and pollinator habitats in cities.