The Buzz Studio: Planning Equitable Cities for People and Pollinators

• Fulfills the studio requirement for the Certificate in Urban Humanities

Link to project website here.

The world’s people and ecosystems depend on pollinators such as bees, butterflies, insects, and fruit bats. Three-fourths of all flowering plants and 35% of all food crops worldwide need pollinators in order to reproduce. Yet many native pollinator populations are shrinking, and many are threatened or endangered due to habitat loss, pollution, agricultural insecticides, and competition from non-native species. Growing awareness of the plight of pollinators have catalyzed ‘pollinator city’ programs, employing a rich array of participatory strategies. They range from small scale community garden and green space efforts to city-wide efforts such Toronto’s Pollinator Protection Strategy and Oslo’s Bee Highway, from private developments such as Baseline, Colorado that feature a ‘pollinator district’ to Auckland’s ‘For the Love of Bees’ project led by artists, and ‘Ciudad Dulce’, Curridabat, Costa Rica’s urban plan that declares pollinators citizens of the city.

The Buzz Studio will partner with local environmental justice/community garden NGOs to co-create a pollinator cities program that simultaneously addresses environmental and ecological justice. The studio will develop strategies to increase food security and supports native pollinator populations. After an introduction to the challenges facing pollinator species and the variety of pollinator programs being undertaken around the world, the studio’s work will include research on the history of urban agriculture and community gardens in the Bay Area, documentation of loss of native pollinator habitat and populations over time, and assessment of current local pollinator-related projects. In collaboration with partners, students will develop community pollinator education and engagement strategies (including public art); design outreach tools to encourage planting native species that support food security as well as pollinators; propose urban design interventions to increase green space equity as well as support pollinator diversity; and build an online citizen-science program to monitor program impacts on residents and pollinators.