Living Lab

Xarxa RestPoll Catalunya

Two research institutes, IRTA and CREAF, are working on the restoration of pollinator habitats in apple orchards in Catalonia, Spain. As part of this initiative, a Living Lab has been created, bringing together apple farmers, fruit producers, farmer advisors, fruit cooperatives, CREAF, and IRTA.

The project is being carried out in 20 apple orchards managed under Integrated Pest Management (IPM). Twelve orchards are located in Lleida (Western Catalonia) and eight in Girona (Northeastern Catalonia). Half of the orchards continue with their usual IPM practices and serve as control sites (CS). In the other half, restoration practices are implemented in a 1-hectare section of the orchard; these are designated as implementation sites (IS).

The restoration measures are co-designed with farmers, advisors, and cooperatives to enhance pollinator habitats and improve the availability of floral resources in apple orchards.

The co-designed restoration measures include:

Plant cover management: Preserving field margins, improving ground cover strategies (e.g., reducing mowing frequency and using alternative machinery), and establishing flower strips with local plant species.
Nesting site preservation and creation: Maintaining or introducing nesting resources such as homemade bee hotels (e.g., bamboo straws) and straw bales.
Adjustment of plant protection practices: Reducing pesticide applications and/or modifying spraying schedules to avoid periods when bees are active, wherever possible.

Activities within the Living Labs

Within the Living Lab network, we are conducting an array of different activities at different levels. These include:

Level 1

The center level contains activities that are conducted at the living labs but coordinated by RestPoll members (i.e. pollinator monitoring).

Pollinator and vegetation monitoring (Task 1.2a)
Pollination monitoring (Task 1.2b)
Measuring the effect of co-design (Task 1.3)
Rapid assessment of plants and pollinators (Task 1.4)
Evaluate interactions among landscape-scale drivers and local restoration measures on pollinators (Task 2.2)
Identify synergies and opportunities for improvements of current restoration implementations (Task 2.3)

Level 2

The second level contains activities that are conducted within the living lab with all stakeholders involved (i.e. workshop to discuss implementation of co-designed measures).

Assess co-benefits of pollinators restoration measures and the direct and indirect impacts of restoration measures on bio-economy (Task 2.4 + 3.3)
Develop and test a novel instrument based on Payments for Restoration-mediated Pollination Services (PRPS) (Task 3.2)
Establishing and monitoring progress and knowledge flow with the Living Lab (Task 4.1)
Assessing enabling conditions for pollinator restoration measures (Task 4.3)

Level 3

The third level are activities that are conducted within the living lab during demonstration events, including a larger audience (i.e. workshop on horizon scan).

Level 4

The final level includes activities that involve the general public within the living lab vicinity (i.e. testing of feasibility of tools).

Assessing the awareness of pollinators and willingness to protect them (Task 3.1)
Estimate the value added by wild pollinators to the food value chain (Task 3.4)
Test and evaluate tools for the RestPoll toolbox of restoration methods (Task 5.2)
Survey consumer willingness to purchase biodiversity-friendly products (Task 5.3)
Understanding and evaluating the co-design of pollinator-friendly labels (Task 5.4)