Cardiff, United Kingdom
City population: 344626
Duration: 2015 – ongoing
Implementation status: Ongoing
Scale: Sub-microscale: Street scale (including buildings)
Project area: 4900 m2
Type of area: Building
Last updated: October 2021

Cardiff City Council and Urban Buzz brought together local organizations, community groups supporting wildlife, to create environments to encourage more bees, butterflies, hoverflies and other insects. (ref 1). One project inspired by Urban Buzz is Pharma Bee, a project housed and run by Cardiff University’s School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, that worked to create a bee-friendly campus through their PharmaBees team (ref 7). In association with Urban Buzz, a project run by BugLife, it renovated the Cardiff University’s Redwood Building by planting bee-friendly plants (ref 2), installed beehives and trained bee-keepers (ref 7). The efforts were then expanded to the Hayden Ellis building on Cardiff University's campus (ref 7).

Overview

Nature-based solution

  • Grey infrastructure featuring greens
  • Institutional green space
  • Other
  • Community gardens and allotments
  • Community gardens

Key challenges

  • Green space, habitats and biodiversity (SDG 15)
  • Habitat and biodiversity restoration
  • Habitat and biodiversity conservation
  • Green space creation and/or management
  • Inclusive and effective governance (SDG 16)
  • Effective management
  • Sustainable consumption and production (SDG 12)
  • Sustainable production

Focus

Creation of new green areas, Knowledge creation and awareness raising, Monitoring and maintenance of habitats and/or biodiversity

Project objectives

1. Create habitat for Pollinators in urban area and increase pollinator habitats in urban environment (ref 1). 2. Improve habitat connectivity to make pollinators more resilient to changes such as development, climate change and pollution (ref 1). 3. Raise awareness about the importance of bees, including expanding research on the role of bees in disease prevention (ref 7). 4. Expand colonies of bees throughout the Cardiff University campus, and elsewhere (ref 7).

Implementation activities

Activities included: - Created or enhanced 57 sites out of a target of 100 for pollinators (ref 5). - The team installed beehives on the roof of the Redwood Building. - Trained members of staff as beekeepers - Planted the ground around the building with antibacterial and bee-friendly plants, including 1000m2 of wildflowers. - Expanded installation of beehives on the roofs of a number of other campus buildings - Continue team has been working to create a beekeeper community (ref 6). - Created pollinator spaces in community gardens or 'bee-friendly' gardens (ref 3). - Engage citizen scientists through the "spot-a-bee" mobile app which captures pictures of the plants users see attracting bees (ref 8)

Biodiversity conservation or restoration-focused activities

Biodiversity conservation:

  • Protect and enhance urban habitats
  • Create new habitats
  • Preserve and strengthen habitat connectivity
  • Protect species
  • Undertake specific measures to protect species
  • Undertake specific measures to protect native species
  • Undertake specific measures to protect valued species
  • Means for conservation governance
  • Manage biological resources for conservation and sustainable use
  • Public engagement

Biodiversity restoration:

  • Restore species (native, endangered, or unspecified)
  • Restore native species
  • Restore valued species
  • Restore ecological connectivity
  • Public engagement

Main beneficiaries

  • Researchers/University
  • Citizens or community groups

Governance

Management set-up

  • Co-governance with government and non-government actors

Type of initiating organisation

  • Researchers/university

Participatory approaches/ community involvement

  • Joint implementation (e.g. tree planting)
  • Citizen science

Details on the roles of the organisations involved in the project

Cardiff City Council and Urban Buzz ( an NGO) brought together local organisations, community groups supporting wildlife (ref 1). This led to the project described through this NBS, which is the Pharma Bee program, a project housed and run by Cardiff University’s School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. (Ref 7)

Project implemented in response to ...

... an EU policy or strategy? Yes (Directive 92/43/EEC on the Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Wild Fauna and Flora (Habitats Directive) (*See ref 1 - Policy and Legislation Summary))
... a national policy or strategy? Yes (UK Biodiversity Action Plan (ref 1))
... a local policy or strategy? Unknown

Financing

Total cost

€50,000 - €100,000

Source(s) of funding

  • Public regional budget
  • Corporate investment
  • Private Foundation/Trust
  • Crowdfunding

Type of funding

  • Direct funding (grants, subsidies, or self-financed projects by private entities)
  • Donations

Non-financial contribution

Type of non-financial contribution
  • Provision of labour
  • Provision of expertise
Who provided the non-financial contribution?
  • Citizens (e.g. volunteering)

Impacts and Monitoring

Environmental impacts

  • Climate change
  • Reduced emissions
  • Enhanced carbon sequestration
  • Green space and habitat
  • Increased green space area
  • Increased conservation or restoration of ecosystems
  • Reduced biodiversity loss
  • Increased number of species present
  • Enhanced support of pollination
  • Increased ecological connectivity across regeneration sites and scales

Economic impacts

  • Generation of income from NBS

Socio-cultural impacts

  • Health and wellbeing
  • Improved physical health
  • Cultural heritage and sense of place
  • Improvement in people’s connection to nature
  • Increased awareness of flora and fauna as culturally and historically meaningful
  • Education
  • Increased support for education and scientific research
  • Increased knowledge of locals about local nature
  • Increased awareness of NBS and their benefits

Type of reported impacts

Achieved impacts

Presence of formal monitoring system

Unknown

Presence of indicators used in reporting

No evidence in public records

Presence of monitoring/ evaluation reports

No evidence in public records

Availability of a web-based monitoring tool

No evidence in public records

References

1. Urban Buzz Cardiff. (No date). Cardiff. Accessed: [Website cannot be accessed in 2020].
2. Migne J. (2016). Cardiff University to be a bee-friendly campus. Inter Cardiff. [Available at: Source link. [Accessed on: Jul 7 2020]
3. Cardiff University. (No date). Pharma Bees - Creating a bee-friendly city. [Available at: Source link. [Accessed on: Jul 7 2020].
4. Cardiff University News. (2017). [Website cannot be accessed in 2020].
5. Cardiff Blog. (2016). Urban Buzz. [Website cannot be accessed in 2020].
6. Cardiff University News. (2017). Cardiff success at Guardian University Awards. [Available at: Source link. [Accessed on: Jul 7 2020].
7. Pharmabees Cardiff University. (No date). Campus. [Available at: Source link. [Accessed on: Jul 7 2020].
8. Cardiff University. (2020). Cardiff’s Spot-a-bee creates UK buzz. [Available at: Source link. [Accessed on: Jul 7 2020].
9. Cardiff University. (2019). ‘Pharmabees’ to make honey cosmetics. [Available at: Source link. [Accessed on: Jul 7 2020].
10. Pharmabees Cardiff University. (No date). Community. [Available at: Source link. [Accessed on: July 7 2020].
11. Pharmabees Cardiff University. (No date). Schools. [Available at: Source link. [Accessed on: Jul 7 2020].
12. Sun Reporter. (2018). Welsh hospital sets up beehives to produce a ‘super honey’ similar to manuka that is used as alternative medicine. [Available at: Source link. [Accessed on: Jul 7 2020].
13. Cardiff Caerdydd. (2019). Cardiff Biodiversity and Resilience of Ecosystems Duty Forward Plan: City of Cardiff Council Green Infrastructure Plan. Cardiff: City of Cardiff. [Available at: Source link. [Accessed on: Jul 7 .2020].