Do you recycle? Re-use? Buy locally-grown, organic produce? You might think you’ve got all the bases covered when it comes to being environmentally friendly.  But if you feel you’ve done all you can to reduce your carbon footprint, maybe you could try tackling a trickier subject: your carbon paw print, so to speak. While the greenest choice may be to forego domestic pets in favour of observing the wildlife in your garden (see articles on our website), or to opt for animals which help you to recycle some of your kitchen waste, like chickens, this doesn’t mean pet ownership and an environmental conscience need be mutually exclusive. Even if you choose a domestic animal, you can still make a difference.

This article will give you valuable tips to turn your garden into a paradise for wild plants and animals.

Image: Bern@t

In our series on biodiversity, we will focus on bees this time. There are two major groups of bees: the honeybees, whom we all know, living in big communities and the solitary bees, less known and with a big variety of species (more on them later).

As you might know, all bees are crucial for humans, because they pollinate: if bees were extinct, it would take human kind another 4 years to disappear as well. The problem is we do not know where the tipping point is in the declining numbers among bees we see today. Even the causes are not always clear. Recent studies show that the general loss of biodiversity is a main factor, the excessive use of chemicals and climate change have all been mentioned in this regard. Hopeful news is reaching us, like the French government announcing a large scale project to plant wild flowers, the thriving of bees in towns, and the raised interest in beehive associations. There are also things you can do!

22 May 2009 was the International Day for Biodiversity. Biodiversity refers to the diversity of all living creatures: the diversity between species, the diversity within the genes of one species, and the diversity of the habitat they live in or their eco-systems.

You have heard about the endangered and extinct species of animals and plants for which mankind often has been responsible. One species disappearing can have a lot of consequences for other species within the same eco-system and once extinct, one cannot restore that imbalance.