Everyone wants to save the bees, but which ones?

Adding 'more nature' in cities can easily cause unintended harm, ecologist Professor Margaret Stanley told the World Green Infrastructure Congress held at the University of Auckland 3-5 September. .

The so-called `extinction of experience’ means fewer people experience the outdoors or interact with nature. Urban greening for people’s well-being and to rebuild relationships with nature is needed but should be place-specific and prioritise native species, Stanley said.

She heads a research group in the School of Biological Sciences in the Faculty of Science.

Green spaces can end up overly manicured, stripped of dense vegetation and shrubs, and lit up at night, making people feel safe at the expense of biodiversity as habitats disappear.

A `McDonaldisation’ of living things, a homogenisation of plants and animals, means many urban settings can feel the same: always sparrows, pigeons, London plane trees and oaks.

“But we know that cities do have Indigenous eco-systems and a lot of threatened species occur in cities, and that’s because humans have built cities in really fertile, high-biodiversity areas,” Stanley said.
 

A disconnect with local nature sees people unwittingly helping introduced species at the expense of native species, such as stocking bird feeders with bread and seed, when Indigenous birds in New Zealand eat nectar, fruit and insects.

Then there’s “saving the bees” and the flourishing of urban beekeeping. Do people realise that the exotic honey bees in their hives are competing with 28 struggling native bee species?

“Let’s be patriotic about our birds and bees and indigenise,” she said. The approach to urban greening needed to be more nuanced than just “more nature” or “more green”.

Stanley’s arguments can be read in detail in a paper she wrote with Dr Josie Galbraith.

The 11th World Green Infrastructure Congress, hosted by Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland, featured international experts exploring nature-based solutions to transform cities.