Incremental Change: the Ginza Bee Project
Posted in Movements by Kate Archdeacon on November 20th, 2009
Source: Japan for Sustainability
Image via tokyo green space
From “The Ginza Honeybee Project — Urban Development Inspired by Beekeeping” by Yuriko Yoneda
Ginza is one of the world’s leading downtown districts, complete with high-class department stores and designer shops. Ginza honeybees are nicknamed “Ginpachi” (short for “Ginza bees” in Japanese), and recently they have become somewhat of a new mascot for the district. In March 2006, the Ginza Bee Project placed three hives on a rooftop 45 meters above the intersection at Ginza 4-chome, and bees began flying into the sky above Ginza. Parks such as the Imperial Palace, Hibiya Park, and Hama-rikyu Gardens are located within two kilometers, and many roadside trees are also good sources of nectar. The amount of honey collected has been increasing steadily, growing from 160 kilograms (kg) in 2006, to 290 kg in 2007, 440 kg in 2008, and over 700 kg in 2009. The beekeepers are using the honey to make Ginza-based products using local skills.
The honeybee is said to be an environmental indicator species because it is extremely susceptible to pesticides, which are used on vast areas of farmland in Japan, and are causing the survival rate of bees to drop. Meanwhile, in Ginza, which is in the central part of metropolitan Tokyo, the use of pesticides is avoided because of the growing number of people with allergies. So Ginza has ended up being a bee-friendly environment, and the high-quality honey-producing Ginza bees have made people aware that the district has a rich natural environment. Since the bees were brought to Ginza, cherry blossoms that had previously not been pollinated began to produce cherries. People began to see birds eating the cherries, and small insects began rejuvenating the environment around the area.
Ginza Green Project Focused on Growing Local, Eating Local
In order to provide a more comfortable environment for the bees, the Ginza Green Project was launched in 2007, with the aim of creating flower and vegetable gardens on building rooftops to increase the amount of green space sources of nectar for them. The project’s objectives are not only to produce honey but also to reduce the negative impacts of the urban heat-island effect, by which concrete and roads retain heat from the sun and increase local temperatures. The aim is also to realize a “grow local, eat local” ethic in the true sense by collecting the honey that Ginza bees produce from local nectar sources, and making food and sweets using the honey harvested from the rooftop plot. It also aims to encourage person-to-person relationships among people who may have otherwise been complete strangers.
With interest growing in the Ginza Green Project, various people — including students and people from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries — are frequently visiting the project sites. Besides the Matsuya department store, Ginza Blossom (a wedding hall), an art gallery, and some commercial establishments are now participating. They grow a variety of things on their rooftops, like herbs for cooking, rice for brewing sake, fruit for sweets, and green soybeans to be served as snacks at high-class bars, so the Ginza Green Project is expanding further while involving a growing number of neighbors.
Japanese Honeybees
Three of the beehives brought to Ginza in March 2006 were populated by European honeybees, first introduced to Japan in the Meiji period (1868-1912). Because the European honeybees are better at producing honey, they have been playing a central role in beekeeping in Japan, and many Japanese beekeepers raise them. Indigenous Japanese honeybees, in contrast, produce less honey and are more difficult to raise, so they are considered inferior to European honeybees from an apicultural point of view. Recently, however, it has become better understood that Japanese honeybees are skilled at fighting hornets, a natural enemy of European honeybees. Furthermore, Japanese honeybees are more disease-resistant and tolerant to extremes of heat and cold, which are attributes better suited to Japan’s natural environment. Japanese honeybees have generally been considered to be pests, and are often exterminated when they build beehives in street-side trees or in residential areas, but in 2007 the Ginza Bee Project started an initiative to conserve Japanese honeybees by rescuing them from extermination and raising them in Ginza.
Creating a Ginza “Satoyama”
“Our future vision for Ginza is not a place where buildings compete for height, but where people and even small insects can coexist in harmony with nature,” said Atsuo Tanaka, co-founder of the Ginza Bee Project. “We believe that honeybees and people’s appreciation for them will help to create an urban district full of greenery, just like the “satoyama” of old (traditional nature-rich rural landscapes near villages). We would be happy if our project could be of some help for future urban planning in Japan,” he said.
Read the full article by Yuriko Yoneda.
