The Municipality launched the project Cross-Polli:Nation to create urban habitats. The citizens who are entrusted with the pollinator census are involved.
Of Gabriella Congedo
June 11, 2024
GROSSETO – Please don’t call it carelessness. Walking through Grosseto you may come across green spaces left “natural”, public gardens where wild herbs and flowers can grow freely. It is one of the actions of Cross-Polli:Nation, a project of participatory science dedicated to pollinating insects just launched by the Municipality. The objective is to identify and promote good practices for recover e create habitat suitable for the various groups of pollinating insects.
The decline of domestic bees and wild pollinators it is now a global emergency. These small and precious animals are crucial for protecting biodiversity and ensuring agricultural productivity. Their main enemy is excess chemistry in agriculture but clear cuts on the banks of watercourses and the craze for English-style lawns also play their part.
In an unmown lawn, wild grasses can flower and produce their seeds and in this way attract butterflies, bees and many other pollinating insects. Spontaneous vegetation also improves the quality of the soil by making it more permeable to water and in summer it helps to lower high temperatures.
Fortunately, something is moving in Tuscany. Some reclamation consortiums have converted to the “gentle maintenance” of rivers and some municipalities have begun to experiment with different management of public green areas. Grosseto, which has already obtained recognition as a “bee-friendly municipality”, has now decided to adopt the Cross-Polli:Nation project, carried out by Silva cooperative.
The peculiarity that distinguishes this from other projects dedicated to pollinators is the citizen involvement and schools, according to a scheme developed in the United Kingdom and adapted to our realities. Among the various activities the most fun is the pollinator census to which every citizen is called to contribute. You go to one of the three gardens of Grosseto chosen for the experimentation (Maiano bastion, Garden of archeology and Diversivo park), the “live” module is downloaded from the project website – a frame that serves to circumscribe the observation area – at least one of the target flowers’ with the square and note the insects identified in 10 minutes of observation. You might not even observe any insects: this is also data to be recorded, it will be useful to the scientific team for collecting data on pollinators.
Of course, the road to making our cities sustainable is still long but every step in this direction is important. Especially if done – as in this case – with the active involvement of citizens.
