Bybi – to see the world from a bee’s perspective

by Teresa Schachtl, 10.03.2022 | March 11.03.2022

The project Bybi which translated to English simply means city-bee, is a socio economic project that takes care of around 150 bee communities in Copenhagen. The bees find their home on top of high rise buildings, next to train stations and untouched by the busy all day life in Denmark’s capital.

The owner Oliver Maxwell wants to connect the inhabitants of Copenhagen more with the environment they live in and strives to educate humans about coexisting with the natural inhabitants of the city, such as bees. 

Working together with social projects, communities, schools, drama and theater organizations and artists they find opportunities for funding. Criticism they had to face comes from people afraid to be stung, Oliver states that prejudices about bees being aggressive mostly stems from people not knowing the difference between bees and the similar looking wesps. 

The coexistence of humans and animals in general has been destroyed through industrial agriculture and growing development in the urban areas, Maxwell calls Denmark “road-kill when it comes to the environment”. In 2012 15 km² of rural land was transformed into urban land which makes it harder for bees to find flowers to pollute. Oliver hopes to inspire his visitors to take more care of the environment around them.

(Photo: Kyran Berlin)

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(This article is written for a general international audience who consume BBC World as a source for diverse international news stories and features.)