BABEL (Bois, Abeilles et Biodiversité pour une Ecologie Local, in English: Wood, Bees and Biodiversity for a Local Ecology) is a project managed by four French youngsters in the GreenFriends-France organization. It is supported by the Youth in Action Program of the European Union.
The project seeks to remind us of our unity with Nature and to help us regain an enchanted vision of the world. This is being implemented in two ways:
1) Applying the Rameal Chipped Wood method, an ecological technique that restores damaged soils by using processes occurring naturally in forests. It is an example of ecosystem management through the life of micro-fauna and flora of the soil.
2) The building of a beehouse, a mud and straw eco-house with an eco-green roof and walls inhabited by bee swarms. From inside the house one will be able to experience the presence of bees: to smell, see and hear them with the help of a glass system with micro-infiltration. It will be quite an original therapeutic place to connect with bees and more generally with nature. Another benefit is that the bees will keep the beehouse at a comfortable temperature. They need to do this so that their young survive.
The climax of the project will be the second GreenFriends-France youth retreat at MA Center France from 11 to 19 July 2009. The first beehouse will be built along with many other workshops on ecology, each emphasizing a particular approach to outer ecology as a complement to our inner ecology. Youth from all over Europe are invited to attend this inspiring summer camp.
To learn more about the project, you can download this pdf:

English version (pdf)

French version (pdf)