The European Commission’s Pollinator Park by Vincent Callebaut
Geschreven op 26-10-2021 - Erik van Erne. Geplaatst in Bouwen-Klussen
“The European Commission’s Pollinator Park offers a mesmerising glimpse into the bleak future without pollinating insects, and a powerful wake-up call to humanity to repair its broken bond with nature.
Designed in collaboration with the world renowned ‘Archiobiotect’ Vincent Callebaut, this 30-minute interactive and emotionally engaging virtual reality experience immerses you in a futuristic world where man and nature co-exist in harmony, hoping to change your perspective and help turn the tide of pollinator decline.
Conceived as part of the ‘EU Pollinators Initiative’, Pollinator Park should raise awareness, engage society at large and promote collaboration on wild pollinators. It helps ongoing ‘European Green Deal’ efforts to address the nature and pollinator crises, and should also help mobilize support for an ambitious deal for nature at the Fifteenth meeting of the ‘Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity’ (CoP 15) later this year 2021.
In particular, members of the EU’s Global Coalition “United for Biodiversity” are invited to use Pollinator Park as part of their own campaigns around biodiversity loss.
Bees, bumblebees, butterflies, ants, hummingbirds, bats, ladybugs, beetles. A pollinator is an animal which, while moving around, carries pollen grains from the male anthers to the female stigma of flowers. In doing so, it contributes to the fertilization of the female gametes in the flowerovum as the pollen grains allow plants to reproduce.
The amount and diversity of pollinators strongly influence plant biodiversity and vice versa. The loss of biodiversity in pollinators now threatens the sustainability of the plant communities that feed us.
Endangered by green chemistry and the toxicity of plant protection products, a large part of pollinator populations are victims of a demographic collapse which affects this ecosystem service, which is considered to be major and precious for the global human diet: pollination, in the field of agriculture, animal husbandry, and even forestry.
As of 2020, pollinators are seriously threatened with an extinction rate that is “100 to 1,000 times higher than normal”, according to the UN.
The reproduction of more than 90% of the world’s species of flowering plants depends on these pollinating animals which have suffered the destruction of their natural habitats, the loss of resources, the explosion of pesticides, and the climatic disturbance that is shifting the seasons. All this due to human activity.
In 1999, more than 20 years ago, during the Convention on Biological Diversity (Declaration on Pollinators, São Paulo), the UN States had already recognized pollinators as “key species” providing ecosystem services necessary to humans as they helped maintain biodiversity, agricultural productivity, and the human economy.
Most of the world’s agriculture therefore depends on pollinators. Insects are often considered to be of little importance or even as harmful or troublesome species to be eliminated. And yet, 35% of what we eat depends on pollination by insects including coffee, cocoa, and spices. The service provided by bees and main pollinators has been estimated by INRA at 153 billion euros per year. According to a report published in “Nature” in 2016, the extinction of pollinators threatens 1.4 billion jobs worldwide: 1/5 of the population.
In early June 2018, the European Commission proposed “the very first European Union (EU) initiative to halt the decline of wild pollinating insects”, which is based on monitoring and coordination of actions aimed at “remedying the social and economic consequences of the decrease in pollinating insects”. Raising awareness among children and European citizens of measures to tackle this decline is the major objective of Pollinator Park.
In order to preserve and restore the biodiversity of pollinating fauna, Pollinator Park is a true demonstrator on a real scale. From the Miro’s Meadow to the Hungry Hive, via the Urban Lab and the Zoom Room, it promotes the noble role of the farming profession. It shows good practices in pollinator preservation on multiple levels: territorial land-use, agricultural, forest, and urban.
See also: Tao Zhu Yin Yuan Tower in Taipei, Taiwan: Agora Garden With 23,000 Trees by Vincent Callebaut – Lilypad City: The Floating City Ecopolis by Vincent Callenbaut – Green Wave Rehabilitation Swimming Pool in Royat, France by Vincent Callebaut – Anti-Smog Paris by Vincent Callebaut –Nautilus Eco-Resort: Triple Zero Ecotoerisme – Zero-Energy, Waste, Armoede by Vincent Callebaut – Dubai World Expo 2020: Belgium Pavilion Design The Green Arch by Vincent Callebaut
