Milan will get buzzier with 1 million bees in designer hives

MILAN — Italy’s fiscal and manner capital of Milan received a small buzzier on Thursday with a venture that mixes biodiversity with art.

A bee collective introduced 17 new colonies to new designer hives, bringing to 1 million the city’s inhabitants of honeybees cultivated by the Urban Beehives undertaking. Creator Claudia Zanfi reported the venture aims to “create an intersection amongst artistic language and biodiversity.”

The art is in the kind of hives created by worldwide artists and the biodiversity arrives from the bees, which enable pollinate crops in the city’s growing green spaces.

The new hives have been introduced to their residences in the Cascina Merlata Park, 20 hectares (50 acres) of new park focused final yr on land used for the Expo 2015 World’s Truthful, which focused on food stuff, foodstuff stability and nourishment.

The 7-calendar year-aged, prize-winning challenge is aimed at educating the general public about the significance of bees to the surroundings, though boosting their inhabitants and making a sweet take care of of honey. It is really billed as a single of the largest city bee collectives in Europe, with hives positioned in 4 general public parks in the city.

“Urban Beehives is a redevelopment task of urban green by way of the reintroduction of bees in the town,’’ Zanfi stated. “There often have been bees in the town, but building a public space for them is what is new.”

Beginning next 7 days, Zanfi’s group Green Island will supply classes and workshops at the park on beekeeping and the bees’ important job in serving to retain a healthy earth.

Two many years back, the Rome-centered Food stuff and Agricultural Firm sounded an alarm that declining bee populations pose threat to world food safety and nutrition.

“The bees have a elementary part for our lives, but also for the everyday living of the planet,” Zanfi said.

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