Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the politics of wildlife gardeners creating habitat for native bees and pollinators, and the care-full approaches that challenge urban-nature binaries and contemporary extinction narratives.

Paper long abstract:

There has been extensive coverage around bee declines, and the knock-on impacts this has on biodiversity globally. Climate change, industrial agriculture and diseases have all impacted bees at different scales around the world, and the impacts on agricultural and ecological systems that would result in their loss dominate much of the discourse.

In response to these threats, communities around the world have responded by reimagining private and public green spaces to be more inclusive – creating habitats for native pollinators to thrive. From petitions banning pesticides to converting nature strips to ‘pollinator pathways’, residents have been reshaping neighbourhoods in careful and creative ways. However, these initiatives have also faced challenges through political structures and power hierarchies that oppose individual and collective actions for multispecies justice.

My paper addresses the politics of wildlife gardening, and the care-full approaches that are required to allow multispecies communities to thrive. Drawing from empirical research, I explore how creating spaces for bees is a care-full political action that resists dominate narratives around extinction and loss in the Anthropocene.