To raise awareness of the importance of wild insects in maintaining biodiversity, to encourage citizens to create their own wildlife areas in the city, and to educate about the full benefits of the human-nature relationship through design tools.
5 October 2022 In Kaunas, a creative-educational workshop was organised in Kaunas Fortress Park, next to which the municipality is developing the Aleksotas Innovation Industrial Park (AIPP) on the site of a former aviation factory.
During the workshop, participants gained knowledge and explored ways to create cities where people and insects can thrive without interfering with each other, as well as shared knowledge of urban ecology and broadened their approach to environmental protection. The presentation by Associate Professor Dr Ričardas Skorupskas and the subsequent discussions encouraged participants to rethink the relationship between humans and wildlife. During the co-creation event, 4 new designs for bee habitat structures were developed: 2 suspended bee hotels for cavity nesting bees, 2 ground-mounted structures for underground nesting bees.
Based on the creative experiments of the Kaunas residents, a design toolkit for the DIY production of wild insect housing structures has been refined. Free instructions and a list of tools can be found here:https://biodivercities.eu/eng/diy-toolkit.html
Justė Motuzaitė, Modestas Stankaitis, Lorenzo Piazzi, Kotryna Lenkauskaitė, Rūta Valušytė, Ričardas Skorupskas, Vita Valantikonytė, Egidijus Bagdonas, Ina Zurkuvienė, Saulius Galvanauskas
Project was financed by Lithuanian Council for Culture (2022-06-01 – 2022-12-31).
