Reconnecting with nature
Apiteca 2024
Apiteca: Community Buzz
Apiteca, buzzes with knowledge sharing tools and creative spaces to all Sant Boi de Llobregat citizens. It wants to reconnect people with nature and build a new city model, sustainable, inclusive and beautiful. In this project, the city’s public library hosts honeybees as inspiring living beings to discover, cocreate and share ideas and knowledge to run a healthier environment. The overall aim is to empower the local community as advocates for the construction of a beautiful and healthier city.
EU Member State, Western Balkans or Ukraine
Spain
Local
Sant Boi de Llobregat (Barcelona)
No
No
It addresses urban-rural linkages
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
Yes
2022-05-22
No
No
No
As a representative of an organisation
Apiteca stands for having bees and beehives as part of the Library.
Bees are transforming the library to a place of experiential and informal learning.
Through them, Apiteca aims to contribute to regenerate natural ecosystems and prevent the loss of biodiversity while inviting the community to reconsider their relationship with nature from a life-centered perspective.
In this sense, the project raises awareness about coexistence with other living
beings, their needs and how they are linked with ours.
The idea embraces a wide range of people and communities, of all ages, from all backgrounds, and all sorts of personal and social situations.
Bees are the thread to learn and codesign new spaces and services that preserve health and nature. Working from the One Health approach, we are pushing for city's urban spaces ‘naturalization, with health and biodiversity as a focus point to construct a more beautiful, healthier and a greener city.
In the time we are working with Apiteca, we have settled an area with four beehives located in one of the inner yards. We have redesigned a part of the children's area to work around this topic and to promote the basis for nature’s care commitment and future learning interests and vocations.
Also we have organized workshops and visits for childrens and adults, a documentary projection linked with an open talk with professional beekeepers about bees and other pollinators’ problems around the world. The project is spreading the initial idea of the city's ecosystem care with a nearby Butterfly garden, inspired by Apiteca project and created by the City's Environment Office, also with the activity Let’s read the river!, in that the participants apply citizenship science and ecological research on the city river to know better and be committed with the city's natural heritage.
Bees are transforming the library to a place of experiential and informal learning.
Through them, Apiteca aims to contribute to regenerate natural ecosystems and prevent the loss of biodiversity while inviting the community to reconsider their relationship with nature from a life-centered perspective.
In this sense, the project raises awareness about coexistence with other living
beings, their needs and how they are linked with ours.
The idea embraces a wide range of people and communities, of all ages, from all backgrounds, and all sorts of personal and social situations.
Bees are the thread to learn and codesign new spaces and services that preserve health and nature. Working from the One Health approach, we are pushing for city's urban spaces ‘naturalization, with health and biodiversity as a focus point to construct a more beautiful, healthier and a greener city.
In the time we are working with Apiteca, we have settled an area with four beehives located in one of the inner yards. We have redesigned a part of the children's area to work around this topic and to promote the basis for nature’s care commitment and future learning interests and vocations.
Also we have organized workshops and visits for childrens and adults, a documentary projection linked with an open talk with professional beekeepers about bees and other pollinators’ problems around the world. The project is spreading the initial idea of the city's ecosystem care with a nearby Butterfly garden, inspired by Apiteca project and created by the City's Environment Office, also with the activity Let’s read the river!, in that the participants apply citizenship science and ecological research on the city river to know better and be committed with the city's natural heritage.
Beekeeping
One Health
Community
Environment care
Creativity
In terms of sustainability, the project aims to promote the development of critical thinking about pollinators disappearance, the conservation and care of natural resources, sustainable consumption and production patterns, circular economy, climate change challenge and also to work towards fulfilling some of the SDO guidelines looking for a more inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable city.
With the One Health approach, the project looks for a sustainable balance and optimization of the health of people, animals and ecosystems.
Having the bees on site makes it easier to better understand the co-benefits, risks, trade-offs and opportunities to advance in equitable and sustainable solutions for theirs and, also, for ours future and wellbeing. They have opened the path to the care of other pollinators as butterflies and nearby, the city, has created a butterfly garden with insect hotel to promote education and awareness about their important role in the ecosystem and in the urban environment. The project searches a large range of the city environment’s care and development as with the activity: Let’s read the river!, that adds citizenship science and ecological research on the city river.This activity is based on the idea of public libraries as social innovation spaces, to promote knowledge of river ecosystems and citizen collaboration in their protection.
With the results of this scientific and informative process, public policy recommendations are co-created to manage and conserve the fluvial heritage.
Also, we have entitled, with a twenty hours workshop, a committed community that makes Apiteca work autonomously.
In that way we are drawing the line of our city’s ecosystem linking culture with pollinators, with the river and the people’s health and with healthier environment and sustainable economy, aiming to enhance a community sense of belonging through the library by beekeeping and promoting sustainable and environmentally-friendly practices.
With the One Health approach, the project looks for a sustainable balance and optimization of the health of people, animals and ecosystems.
Having the bees on site makes it easier to better understand the co-benefits, risks, trade-offs and opportunities to advance in equitable and sustainable solutions for theirs and, also, for ours future and wellbeing. They have opened the path to the care of other pollinators as butterflies and nearby, the city, has created a butterfly garden with insect hotel to promote education and awareness about their important role in the ecosystem and in the urban environment. The project searches a large range of the city environment’s care and development as with the activity: Let’s read the river!, that adds citizenship science and ecological research on the city river.This activity is based on the idea of public libraries as social innovation spaces, to promote knowledge of river ecosystems and citizen collaboration in their protection.
With the results of this scientific and informative process, public policy recommendations are co-created to manage and conserve the fluvial heritage.
Also, we have entitled, with a twenty hours workshop, a committed community that makes Apiteca work autonomously.
In that way we are drawing the line of our city’s ecosystem linking culture with pollinators, with the river and the people’s health and with healthier environment and sustainable economy, aiming to enhance a community sense of belonging through the library by beekeeping and promoting sustainable and environmentally-friendly practices.
In terms of aesthetics and quality of experience for people, Apiteca wants to evoke positive emotions by providing opportunities to reconnect with nature and to promote the care of species like insects. In this case bees, that are usually more likely to draw people to admire and be inspired by the process of beehives’ construction, social organization and by honey production. Bees are also likely to give us pause to think about what’s happening with our environment.
We have organized expositions and visits to enlighten the need of honey plants and other flower plants cultivation in balconies and terraces to help pollinators grow. Also to highlight the bees presence in the arts and crafts world, we have runned several workshops to use beeswax to make candles, body painting actions with floral and bee’s themes and film exhibitions about bees ecological frailty all over the world.
For Apiteca, creating a movement around bees and their impact on plants and crops development it’s a first step to get a pleasing, greener city, starting with our own living space.
In a medium-long term, the Apiteca initiative envisages that urban beekeeping is integrated into our city’s landscape through the use of rooftop hives or community gardens, which can add a unique element to the environment.
Apiteca can provide a wide range of benefits in terms of arts inspiration and city’s design, positive emotions generation, and change-behavior impact. It is an exciting and engaging tool to connect people with nature, promote sustainable and aesthetic practices to improve physical and mental well-being in a unique and creative experience in a beautiful space.
We have organized expositions and visits to enlighten the need of honey plants and other flower plants cultivation in balconies and terraces to help pollinators grow. Also to highlight the bees presence in the arts and crafts world, we have runned several workshops to use beeswax to make candles, body painting actions with floral and bee’s themes and film exhibitions about bees ecological frailty all over the world.
For Apiteca, creating a movement around bees and their impact on plants and crops development it’s a first step to get a pleasing, greener city, starting with our own living space.
In a medium-long term, the Apiteca initiative envisages that urban beekeeping is integrated into our city’s landscape through the use of rooftop hives or community gardens, which can add a unique element to the environment.
Apiteca can provide a wide range of benefits in terms of arts inspiration and city’s design, positive emotions generation, and change-behavior impact. It is an exciting and engaging tool to connect people with nature, promote sustainable and aesthetic practices to improve physical and mental well-being in a unique and creative experience in a beautiful space.
In terms of inclusion, Apiteca wants to reduce the barriers for individuals and groups who may not have had previous access to learning opportunities by promoting meeting spaces to develop community knowledge-based initiatives and informal education activities.
It involves a diverse range of stakeholders in the decision-making, to promote an inclusive governing system. This includes local communities,vulnerable people and people with disabilities in the planning and management of Apiteca’s initiatives, activities and programs.
Library's infrastructure ensures accessibility and usability for everybody, providing ramps and also some adjustable software and devices that can help those who have visual impairments to read printed material or surf the web. In that sense, the Apiteca’s project objectives are:
-To provide access to information and ideas for all, while supporting formal and informal education, and promoting critical thinking development.
-To offer opportunities for creativity development among different target groups, to stimulate imagination, curiosity and empathy to living beings and ecosystem preservation.
-To give access to scientific knowledge as well as to enable participation in open science actions and proposals that are attractive and understandable for all
-To play a socially-binding and a facilitating role in the face of economic, societal and environmental challenges.
-To develop community meeting and relationship spaces by strengthening participation, co-creation and open culture activities around honey bees and their link with people and the environment health.
-To openly share all the community-generated content.
Apiteca motivates the dialogue between people with different levels of knowledge and experience, helping to break stereotypes, reducing social gaps and contributing to communities' commitment to well-being and education.
It involves a diverse range of stakeholders in the decision-making, to promote an inclusive governing system. This includes local communities,vulnerable people and people with disabilities in the planning and management of Apiteca’s initiatives, activities and programs.
Library's infrastructure ensures accessibility and usability for everybody, providing ramps and also some adjustable software and devices that can help those who have visual impairments to read printed material or surf the web. In that sense, the Apiteca’s project objectives are:
-To provide access to information and ideas for all, while supporting formal and informal education, and promoting critical thinking development.
-To offer opportunities for creativity development among different target groups, to stimulate imagination, curiosity and empathy to living beings and ecosystem preservation.
-To give access to scientific knowledge as well as to enable participation in open science actions and proposals that are attractive and understandable for all
-To play a socially-binding and a facilitating role in the face of economic, societal and environmental challenges.
-To develop community meeting and relationship spaces by strengthening participation, co-creation and open culture activities around honey bees and their link with people and the environment health.
-To openly share all the community-generated content.
Apiteca motivates the dialogue between people with different levels of knowledge and experience, helping to break stereotypes, reducing social gaps and contributing to communities' commitment to well-being and education.
Despite being surrounded by industrial and logistics areas, one of Sant Boi economic assets are strongly linked to agriculture. The 60% of its territory is forest, agricultural and fluvial. To enlighten this, Apiteca seeks to empower citizens as defenders of the construction of a more beautiful, greener and healthier city, strengthening their commitment with the environment and the promotion of cultural and social progress.
Apiteca facilitates a sense of community and shared responsibility, as well as educates about the importance of bees and their role in the ecosystem, it also helps to promote sustainable practices and encourage people to take an active role in protecting bees and their habitats.
The project is also transforming the library to a place to learn from shared and community-created knowledge. It broadens the options for our community to participate in resolving problems or worries that could globally affect, not only, the local citizens’ future but also other Europe's citizens' prospects.
There are more than 50 people directly engaged and actively participating in the project: beekeepers; all ages “nature and bees fans”; environmental technicians and students who are working on projects about the environment and bees.
For the project it’s critical to spread the buzz between the city's youngest, so that we are working together with Elementary and High Schools, because ultimately, as future’s adults they will be leading the fight for a fair, beautiful, sostenible, inclusive and greener society.
By now, people of all ages and from different backgrounds have already been involved in the Apiteca community, in their early design and development, and also by attending different activities to be reconnected with nature through insects, honey bees and the river ecosystem.
Overall, citizens and civil society involvement have a positive impact on both the initiative and the community, by promoting community development, education, and conservation values.
Apiteca facilitates a sense of community and shared responsibility, as well as educates about the importance of bees and their role in the ecosystem, it also helps to promote sustainable practices and encourage people to take an active role in protecting bees and their habitats.
The project is also transforming the library to a place to learn from shared and community-created knowledge. It broadens the options for our community to participate in resolving problems or worries that could globally affect, not only, the local citizens’ future but also other Europe's citizens' prospects.
There are more than 50 people directly engaged and actively participating in the project: beekeepers; all ages “nature and bees fans”; environmental technicians and students who are working on projects about the environment and bees.
For the project it’s critical to spread the buzz between the city's youngest, so that we are working together with Elementary and High Schools, because ultimately, as future’s adults they will be leading the fight for a fair, beautiful, sostenible, inclusive and greener society.
By now, people of all ages and from different backgrounds have already been involved in the Apiteca community, in their early design and development, and also by attending different activities to be reconnected with nature through insects, honey bees and the river ecosystem.
Overall, citizens and civil society involvement have a positive impact on both the initiative and the community, by promoting community development, education, and conservation values.
Apiteca’s first boost was given by The European Culture Foundation and Democratic Society through the Europe Challenge giving us tools, advice and the first funds to make the idea come true. The challenge sought to strengthen our position as an educational, inclusive, relevant, safe and open public facility and a place to solve local challenges by involving the knowledge of communities.
For to strengthen citizenship’s commitment to environmental care through cooperative actions between citizens and the local government and in order to co-create beautiful, sustainable, and inclusive public spaces, at local level,we are engaged with:
-Sant Boi de Llobregat City Council's Participation, Environment, Education, and Planning & Evaluation Departments. They have acted as project's planification and further development supporters, helping with
citizenship engagement and activities promotion, for example, honey plant plantations in the city's green zones and balconies or the adequation of a pond located in the children's area inner yard, redesigning it to get a functional educational space about pond life: insects, algae, pollinators and a local frog species, in danger of being extinct..
-La Rutlla, city’s entity linked to the preservation of cultural and natural heritage assets.
-Camps Blancs High School, technological study team. The 2023 planning has been to install a bee counter at one of the beehives' entrances.
-Benito Menni, Mental health care complex, Using Apiteca as a learning and therapeutic resource.
-Diputació de Barcelona Libraries' Central Services. To replicate the project in other public libraries.
The added value of their engagement has been the enrichment of the project with so many different points of view and approaches, also in order to keep working on it, the commitment of different stakeholders helps to grow and spread Apiteca’s project.
For to strengthen citizenship’s commitment to environmental care through cooperative actions between citizens and the local government and in order to co-create beautiful, sustainable, and inclusive public spaces, at local level,we are engaged with:
-Sant Boi de Llobregat City Council's Participation, Environment, Education, and Planning & Evaluation Departments. They have acted as project's planification and further development supporters, helping with
citizenship engagement and activities promotion, for example, honey plant plantations in the city's green zones and balconies or the adequation of a pond located in the children's area inner yard, redesigning it to get a functional educational space about pond life: insects, algae, pollinators and a local frog species, in danger of being extinct..
-La Rutlla, city’s entity linked to the preservation of cultural and natural heritage assets.
-Camps Blancs High School, technological study team. The 2023 planning has been to install a bee counter at one of the beehives' entrances.
-Benito Menni, Mental health care complex, Using Apiteca as a learning and therapeutic resource.
-Diputació de Barcelona Libraries' Central Services. To replicate the project in other public libraries.
The added value of their engagement has been the enrichment of the project with so many different points of view and approaches, also in order to keep working on it, the commitment of different stakeholders helps to grow and spread Apiteca’s project.
From its conception, the project has assured inter-institutional cooperation and networking involving citizenship with health,environmental, educational, social, cultural and economic agents.
Besides agriculture and horticulture, the project design and implementation envisages synergies between bees and beekeeping, with a variety of disciplines and knowledge fields, including:
-Environmental health: studying the role of bees in pollination and their contribution to ecosystem health (i.e. green corridors creation, Asian Hornet plague fight)
-Climatology: bees behavior monitoring, to relate it with climate change, temperature and air quality.
-Ecology: Ecologists can study the interactions between bees and their environment, including the effects of habitat loss, pesticide use and the impact of drought on bee populations and the city’s fluvial ecosystem health.
-Sociology and social cooperation: circular economy, sustainable consumption patterns, cultural and historical heritage knowledge.
-Sensorization and monitoring technology (Beep Platform app sharing; Bees counter (High school project)
-Gardening (Butterfly garden; honey plants and seeds plantation campaign)
-Beekeepers, educational agents as technology, sociology and history teachers, environmental civil servants as city’s environment technicians, forest rangers and people interested in all these themes have the opportunity to work together to develop and co-create new programmes, spaces and services. They can also share their knowledge and expertise through workshops, conferences, and other networking opportunities.
As an added value, Apiteca, as an open learning resource, contributes to encouraging critical thinking by revising the city’s urban spaces, pointing to culture, health and biodiversity as promoters of quality of life.
Besides agriculture and horticulture, the project design and implementation envisages synergies between bees and beekeeping, with a variety of disciplines and knowledge fields, including:
-Environmental health: studying the role of bees in pollination and their contribution to ecosystem health (i.e. green corridors creation, Asian Hornet plague fight)
-Climatology: bees behavior monitoring, to relate it with climate change, temperature and air quality.
-Ecology: Ecologists can study the interactions between bees and their environment, including the effects of habitat loss, pesticide use and the impact of drought on bee populations and the city’s fluvial ecosystem health.
-Sociology and social cooperation: circular economy, sustainable consumption patterns, cultural and historical heritage knowledge.
-Sensorization and monitoring technology (Beep Platform app sharing; Bees counter (High school project)
-Gardening (Butterfly garden; honey plants and seeds plantation campaign)
-Beekeepers, educational agents as technology, sociology and history teachers, environmental civil servants as city’s environment technicians, forest rangers and people interested in all these themes have the opportunity to work together to develop and co-create new programmes, spaces and services. They can also share their knowledge and expertise through workshops, conferences, and other networking opportunities.
As an added value, Apiteca, as an open learning resource, contributes to encouraging critical thinking by revising the city’s urban spaces, pointing to culture, health and biodiversity as promoters of quality of life.
Apiteca is 100% inserted in a new model of public library initiative Our aim is to evolve to envisaging the library as a “pilot ecosystem”, providing the necessary resources to create new knowledge and share information. We see the library as a facilitator for the assimilation of knowledge based on experience. A promoter of collaboration and alliances with the
educational community. A supplier of social innovation resources for the development of critical thinking, research and community action.
We are working to develop the co-creation of new knowledge. Currently, “Apiteca” (beehives and beekeepers inside the library) is our Live Lab of creation, citizen science and social innovation to solve social challenges and encourage new vocations. Apiteca promotes being part of a driving force for social transformation and acts as an opportunity’s generator space.
Additionally, we are working :
- to promote meeting, socialization, debate, exchange of ideas and experiential spaces.
- To promote the participation of community stakeholders.
- To share resources and knowledge openly.
- To spread democratic values and integration, inclusion, diversity and equal rights.
Following this model , we would like to become a basic resource, for citizens and communities, in the development of their lifelong learning process in order to help
individuals to develop new skills and interests.
Apiteca is up to be escalated and replicated within the region libraries network as an innovative project to promote the reconnection of people with nature.
It is one of the stand out libraries projects, shown in a video about actions that pose the search of solutions to environmental, social and informational challenges as a focal point. And also in an article about the evolution in Barcelona’s public libraries (both linked down as a proven impact) where Apiteca is mentioned.
educational community. A supplier of social innovation resources for the development of critical thinking, research and community action.
We are working to develop the co-creation of new knowledge. Currently, “Apiteca” (beehives and beekeepers inside the library) is our Live Lab of creation, citizen science and social innovation to solve social challenges and encourage new vocations. Apiteca promotes being part of a driving force for social transformation and acts as an opportunity’s generator space.
Additionally, we are working :
- to promote meeting, socialization, debate, exchange of ideas and experiential spaces.
- To promote the participation of community stakeholders.
- To share resources and knowledge openly.
- To spread democratic values and integration, inclusion, diversity and equal rights.
Following this model , we would like to become a basic resource, for citizens and communities, in the development of their lifelong learning process in order to help
individuals to develop new skills and interests.
Apiteca is up to be escalated and replicated within the region libraries network as an innovative project to promote the reconnection of people with nature.
It is one of the stand out libraries projects, shown in a video about actions that pose the search of solutions to environmental, social and informational challenges as a focal point. And also in an article about the evolution in Barcelona’s public libraries (both linked down as a proven impact) where Apiteca is mentioned.
The main methodology to arrive at the solution of our challenge was Design thinking, a process where life (nature and citizens) is in the center (life-centered
design). We searched for a challenge solution that was not focused on the problem itself. We needed a useful and innovative solution and believed that a life-centered approach inspired a meaningful and impactful answer. Why not a beehive inside the library could be a new widget for citizens to improve, learn and be aware about the importance of the bees to be more healthy, green and reconnect with nature? To arrive to the final result we followed the next steps:
-Understand the society challenges: Conducting research to gain an in-depth understanding of the needs, pain points, and goals of our society focusing on environment, health and biodiversity.
-Define the challenge: Clearly define the challenge that we wanted to solve, and make sure it is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART).
-Ideate solutions: Generate a wide range of ideas and solutions to the problem.
Encourage creativity and out-of-the-box thinking with workshops, citizen labs and meetings with stakeholders.
-Prototype: Create a prototype of the most promising solution. Apiteca, was the final prototype after the first months of hard work with our community.
-Test: Test the prototype with users to gather feedback and iterate on the design, designing activities for all ages like filmforum and formation with users and
educational community.
-Implement: Once the design was validated and refined, we implemented the beehives in the library in order to measure its effectiveness, spread the project and design more actions to consolidate the enterprise.
During codesing and co-implementation phases, we have used online tools like Google Meet and Miro and face to face workshops and living labs with
Sant Boi citizens (library users, students, associations, local politicians, and Council’s civil participation unit)
design). We searched for a challenge solution that was not focused on the problem itself. We needed a useful and innovative solution and believed that a life-centered approach inspired a meaningful and impactful answer. Why not a beehive inside the library could be a new widget for citizens to improve, learn and be aware about the importance of the bees to be more healthy, green and reconnect with nature? To arrive to the final result we followed the next steps:
-Understand the society challenges: Conducting research to gain an in-depth understanding of the needs, pain points, and goals of our society focusing on environment, health and biodiversity.
-Define the challenge: Clearly define the challenge that we wanted to solve, and make sure it is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART).
-Ideate solutions: Generate a wide range of ideas and solutions to the problem.
Encourage creativity and out-of-the-box thinking with workshops, citizen labs and meetings with stakeholders.
-Prototype: Create a prototype of the most promising solution. Apiteca, was the final prototype after the first months of hard work with our community.
-Test: Test the prototype with users to gather feedback and iterate on the design, designing activities for all ages like filmforum and formation with users and
educational community.
-Implement: Once the design was validated and refined, we implemented the beehives in the library in order to measure its effectiveness, spread the project and design more actions to consolidate the enterprise.
During codesing and co-implementation phases, we have used online tools like Google Meet and Miro and face to face workshops and living labs with
Sant Boi citizens (library users, students, associations, local politicians, and Council’s civil participation unit)
Apiteca can be replicable in other fields and institutions, whether the design of the project as well as the project itself.
Methodology: We are using design thinking as a mindset and approach to problem-solving and innovation. The open resources and models provided by MINDSHAKE and other free tools like Miro have been very useful aids to develop new ideas for the project.
Technology: all the technological resources employed on the project are Open Data and open source, that contribute to:
-Digitalaised data capture and collection.
-Better informed beekeepers by digital tools that help to improve decisions based on data and respond more quickly to the needs of the bees. They can also cooperate with others through the app. We also hope to inspire young people to delve into the world of the bee.
-Conservation of nature by providing better care for our pollinators.
All the connections are with LoraWan technology (Low Range Wide Area), to wirelessly connect battery operated ‘things’ to the internet in regional, national or global networks. It is an open source to share data around the world.
We work in citizen participation processes for the creation of interdisciplinary communities with common objectives: workshops, living labs, constructive discussions and activities.
Learning and co-creation: Work with citizens, all together to come solutions with new methodology, with an open mind attitude. Another objective is to disseminate the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs to bring the challenges of the planet to the public sphere and raise awareness of the importance of a sustainable future. The learnings and the objectives of Apiteca are directly associated with some of the Sustainable Development Goals and the 2030 Agenda.
As already mentioned, Apiteca is also up to be escalated, within the region libraries network, as an innovative project to promote the reconnection of people with nature and promote live libraries as inspirational and creative spots to all.
Methodology: We are using design thinking as a mindset and approach to problem-solving and innovation. The open resources and models provided by MINDSHAKE and other free tools like Miro have been very useful aids to develop new ideas for the project.
Technology: all the technological resources employed on the project are Open Data and open source, that contribute to:
-Digitalaised data capture and collection.
-Better informed beekeepers by digital tools that help to improve decisions based on data and respond more quickly to the needs of the bees. They can also cooperate with others through the app. We also hope to inspire young people to delve into the world of the bee.
-Conservation of nature by providing better care for our pollinators.
All the connections are with LoraWan technology (Low Range Wide Area), to wirelessly connect battery operated ‘things’ to the internet in regional, national or global networks. It is an open source to share data around the world.
We work in citizen participation processes for the creation of interdisciplinary communities with common objectives: workshops, living labs, constructive discussions and activities.
Learning and co-creation: Work with citizens, all together to come solutions with new methodology, with an open mind attitude. Another objective is to disseminate the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs to bring the challenges of the planet to the public sphere and raise awareness of the importance of a sustainable future. The learnings and the objectives of Apiteca are directly associated with some of the Sustainable Development Goals and the 2030 Agenda.
As already mentioned, Apiteca is also up to be escalated, within the region libraries network, as an innovative project to promote the reconnection of people with nature and promote live libraries as inspirational and creative spots to all.
Apiteca is working on information, education and knowledge acquisition and creation about environment, health, quality of life and land use issues. Challenges such as sustainability, food security, climate change and biodiversity loss are very similar to those citizens are facing in many locations and contexts across Europe and the world.
Apiteca matches with some of the SDG’s like:
SDG2 - ZERO HUNGER. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture
SDG3-HEALTH AND WELLNESS. Ensure healthy living and promote well-being for all people at all ages.
SDG 11-SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND COMMUNITIES. Making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
SDG 12-RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION. Guarantee sustainable consumption and product
SDG 13 CLIMATE ACTION and 15 EARTH LIFE - Restore and protect terrestrial ecosystems, stopping the loss of biodiversity in the environmention methods.
SDG 16- PEACE, JUSTICE AND SOLID INSTITUTIONS-Include citizens in the design and implementation of cultural programs, co-creating and co-designing.
Apiteca can foster a sense of community and shared responsibility, it can promote education and awareness about the importance of bees and lead to greater understanding and sensibilization about their role in the ecosystem and people’s health. That could increase the demand for more public support and efforts for their conservation and protection.
Overall, we strongly believe the project can provide a wide range of local solutions to global challenges, by supporting education, food security, biodiversity, sustainable development, and community engagement.
Apiteca matches with some of the SDG’s like:
SDG2 - ZERO HUNGER. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture
SDG3-HEALTH AND WELLNESS. Ensure healthy living and promote well-being for all people at all ages.
SDG 11-SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND COMMUNITIES. Making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
SDG 12-RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION. Guarantee sustainable consumption and product
SDG 13 CLIMATE ACTION and 15 EARTH LIFE - Restore and protect terrestrial ecosystems, stopping the loss of biodiversity in the environmention methods.
SDG 16- PEACE, JUSTICE AND SOLID INSTITUTIONS-Include citizens in the design and implementation of cultural programs, co-creating and co-designing.
Apiteca can foster a sense of community and shared responsibility, it can promote education and awareness about the importance of bees and lead to greater understanding and sensibilization about their role in the ecosystem and people’s health. That could increase the demand for more public support and efforts for their conservation and protection.
Overall, we strongly believe the project can provide a wide range of local solutions to global challenges, by supporting education, food security, biodiversity, sustainable development, and community engagement.
Apiteca has fostered the transformation of the library, with an innovative approach, as an open space of creativity, learning by connecting the community with the place and nature and sharing knowledge. Looking for sustainability, inclusion and searching cultural and personal enrichment .
The learning process based on experimentation facilitates a change of perspective towards nature contributing to keep biodiversity and the environment's health.
The benefits from the initiative are diverse and transversal: we are constructing a working network to improve our city to be more sustainable and beautiful, engaging with the community and library surroundings (butterfly garden, honey plants and naturalized library’s yard pond). The results achieved so far are:
-increased awareness in the community about environment and health.
-a beautiful lifelong and informal learning space for everyone.
-new links between community, local entities, education sector and other municipal departments.
This year 2023 we have worked with nearby High School students and teachers to develop a bees entrance and exit counter using open and free source makers tools. That will make it possible to see if there’s a significant loose in the bees’ colony during their way to recollect pollen and nectar and their return to the beehive. So students are benefiting from an experimental resource and the results of their work can be used by beekeepers, ecologists and the overall community to evaluate and theorize about the environment’s safety, invasive species (ex. Asian hornet) attacks or pesticides impact.
We are also testing the efficiency of Asian hornet trapping campaigns by homemade traps and of the electric harps settled around the library's beehives.
The benefits are diverse and transverse from constructing a working network to improve our city to be more sustainable and beautiful to engaging with the community to increase commitment about environment and health.
The learning process based on experimentation facilitates a change of perspective towards nature contributing to keep biodiversity and the environment's health.
The benefits from the initiative are diverse and transversal: we are constructing a working network to improve our city to be more sustainable and beautiful, engaging with the community and library surroundings (butterfly garden, honey plants and naturalized library’s yard pond). The results achieved so far are:
-increased awareness in the community about environment and health.
-a beautiful lifelong and informal learning space for everyone.
-new links between community, local entities, education sector and other municipal departments.
This year 2023 we have worked with nearby High School students and teachers to develop a bees entrance and exit counter using open and free source makers tools. That will make it possible to see if there’s a significant loose in the bees’ colony during their way to recollect pollen and nectar and their return to the beehive. So students are benefiting from an experimental resource and the results of their work can be used by beekeepers, ecologists and the overall community to evaluate and theorize about the environment’s safety, invasive species (ex. Asian hornet) attacks or pesticides impact.
We are also testing the efficiency of Asian hornet trapping campaigns by homemade traps and of the electric harps settled around the library's beehives.
The benefits are diverse and transverse from constructing a working network to improve our city to be more sustainable and beautiful to engaging with the community to increase commitment about environment and health.
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