DUBAI – Think of bees, and you think of honey, but the Slovenia Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai wants the world to see these hardworking insects as much more than only food producers.
While it might not be the first country that springs to mind in relation to bees, Slovenia is home to 170,000 hives filled with the hardworking insects, as well as 100,000 beekeepers, and recognises they are a crucial part of nature that we need to protect and learn from.
Located in the Sustainability District, the Slovenia Pavilion is styled like a floating green oasis and focuses on the country’s relationship with bees in connection to nature and the environment.
“Nature is always right, nature is smart and the bee is our favourite co-worker,” announces a narrator on the rolling footage in the pavilion. Emphasising that the whole country appreciates bees, which have become an unofficial symbol of the country’s culture, the narration also informs visitors: “Nowhere else is their death treated with such respect.”
Bees are responsible for keeping ecological balance and biodiversity, and honey is the tip of the iceberg in terms of the food for which they are responsible – they help to feed the world, with a third of the planet’s food depending on bees for effective pollination.
Slovenia’s native bee is the Carniolan, believed to be the hardest working bee in the world. To make one kilogram of honey, these bees fly an incredible 200,000 kilometres and visit more than four million flowers.
So strong is their appreciation of their black-and-yellow friends, Slovenia proposed the idea of World Bee Day to the United Nations, who approved the idea, with the first annual day celebrated on 20 May 2018.
Slovenia has the highest density of bees per square kilometre in Europe and the unique traditional painted hives that are spread across the countryside provide striking sights.
Apitourism – also called bee tourism – has now become a crucial part of Slovenia’s tourism industry, and trips to the country can include everything from hive-painting experiences to sleeping in honeycomb structures or enjoying the Bee Path in Ljubljana, an educational trail that demonstrates the importance of bees.