Month: May 2022

Mountain wildflower honey and the fascinating interaction between honeybees and landscape

By Valeria Leoni, PhD student in Environmental Sciences at University of Milano – Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

Mountain wildflower honey: an endangered portrait of mountain grasslands

Mountain wildflower honey is a picture of the spontaneous flora of the mountains, an excellence from meadows and pastures of our Alps, habitats protected by the European directives. Beekeeping in environments where spring and summer are short is tougher, inside a general framework where pollinators are facing may difficulties and are in constant decline. (more…)

Planning for sustainability in shrinking mountain communities

By Hans Olav Bråtå, Ph.D. Research Professor. Eastern Norway Research Institute, Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences. Lillehammer, Norway.

Many rural municipalities have a shrinking population, an increased share of elderly and a decreasing share of young people. This is frequently the case in mountain communities.

Shrinkage causes economic problems and a need to reduce the cost level for municipal services, including reducing staffing and the number of service locations   public services or centralise them within the municipality. This is painful to local communities. Another issue is over-investments, based on wishful politics of a future population growth which turns out to be absent. This often accelerate economic problems. (more…)