Clarence Native Bee Rescue and Community Education

Educating about native bee identification and protection at our Native Bee Expo, training workshops and with educational material.

Clarence Native Bee Rescue and Community Education

Educating about native bee identification and protection at our Native Bee Expo, training workshops and with educational material.

Making a Difference -

LLCI033-052

The issue

Loss of native stingless bee populations due to loss of habitat and lack of general community awareness and understanding of the native stingless bee and its important role in the ecosystem.

Clarence Landcare ran two ‘Stingless Native Bee’ workshops in March and November 2014 and from those we identified some very knowledgeable local people and there was clearly many more people eager to learn more.

The solution

Clarence Landcare were successful in facilitating the formation of the ‘Clarence Natives Bees’ Landcare Group, the first of its type in Australia. The group’s start up objective was to ‘conserve local native bees and where possible their habitat for nesting.’

The group held monthly meetings and information sessions with a regular 35 members attending. Clarence Landcare could see the potential of this group so sponsored the group by developing a grant application to the Australian Government’s National Landcare Programme. Successful in the application the group was well on its way to working toward its objectives.

Under the grant project work plan and guiding support from Clarence Landcare’s Local Landcare Coordinator the Clarence Native Bees Landcare group held a series of workshops and training days and developed a number of resources to create community awareness and promote interest in protection and conservation of local native stingless bees.

The impact

A total of five hundred community members were involved in this project including 200 at the Native Bee Expo so there is no doubt that the group have raised awareness and educated people about native bees.

The group also worked directly with Roads and Maritime Services (RMS), Pacific Complete and the Environmental Protection Authority to develop a protocol document, toolkits and video presentations of native bee hive rescue procedures for agencies and individuals involved in native vegetation clearing. This has been extremely important work as it relates directly to the 65 ha linear corridor being cleared for the Pacific Hwy realignment in our area.

Key facts

  • 200 people attended the Native Stingless Bee Expo in Grafton.
  • 60 people attended Native Bee research information day.
  • 3 Video presentations and 1 Bee Hive Rescue Protocol were produced.
  • The group has 60 enthusiastic members.

Project Partners