Bring Back the Buzz—Pollinator-Friendly Productive Landscape

In Hanyuan County, Sichuan Province, China, excessive pesticide use has severely reduced biodiversity in local pear orchards. As bee populations have declined, farmers have increasingly relied on hand pollination to sustain pear production. On the other side of the world, California’s vast almond monocultures face a different but related challenge: Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) and the loss of pollinators.

The two agricultural landscapes stand in stark contrast. Hanyuan is characterized by small-scale pear orchards embedded within a natural, mountainous landscape, while California’s almond industry is dominated by large-scale, highly uniform plantations arranged in rigid rows. Rather than applying a single solution to both contexts, this project explores how landscape strategies can respond to the distinct ecological, agricultural, and cultural conditions of each site.

By working with local planting practices, habitat structures, and agricultural patterns, the project proposes site-specific landscape strategies to restore pollinator habitat, strengthen biodiversity, and bring bees back into productive agricultural landscapes.