Bed & Breakfasts for wild pollinators - Belgian Biodiversity Alliance

By 2030, 2.000 bed & breakfasts for wild pollinators are available in urban and peri-urban areas.

The key role of wild and domestic pollinators both for nature and human survival is well-known and therefore strategies exist at national, EU and global levels to protect them. Protection and conservation activities include installing beehives and insect houses in urban and peri-urban areas, planting pollinator-friendly plants and flowers, drastically reducing and changing the use of pesticides, fighting invasive alien species, research on their decline, etc. The presence of wild pollinators has significantly decreased these last years, especially in urban areas, due to fragmentation of the ecological network. They indeed do not have easily access to a place to rest which also provides sufficient food.

Citizens can play a significant role in the protection of wild pollinator species: adapted mowing to let space for the insects in their garden, planting insect-friendly vegetal species, planting local species instead of invasive alien species… Many parks, school playgrounds, private gardens already developed flower green spaces with nesting sites for pollinators. Such actions favouring pollination and the presence of pollinating insects, especially in urban areas, can make a substantial contribution to restore biodiversity as well as to enhance the overall ecological network and also contribute to urban farming.

I am committed to this goal

What are the objectives to be achieved?

Restoration and conservation of wild pollinators
Creation of new pollinator-friendly zones
Promotion of pollinator-friendly practices
Restoration and enhancement of the connectivity of the ecological network
(Re)naturalising of urban and peri-urban areas

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Criteria to be reflected in voluntary commitments:

Provide suitable habitats for wild pollinators, both in terms of nesting places (bed) and in terms of food plants and vegetation (breakfast);
Diversify vegetation to include a range of plants (native species adapted to local pollinator populations) that bloom and provide abundant sources of pollen and nectar throughout spring, summer and fall (“bee pastures”);
Create appropriate nesting places (piles of wood or sand, insect hotels, …), and permanent spots of bare soil for ground-nesting pollinator species;
Create/enhance corridors to maintain the ecological continuity across the different types of green spaces and allow pollinators to move from one place to another.