Where school comes second and the town where bees come first

1. Costa Rica

“Sweet City,” a neighborhood near Costa Rica’s capital, prioritized its pollinators to also benefit people. Curridabat, an eastern suburb of San José, in 2015 bestowed citizenship onto its pollinators, trees, and native plants, and has since embedded environmental design into every corner of the city also called “Ciudad Dulce.”

The city’s approach identifies pollinators as “prosperity agents” and acknowledges their impact on the economy and nature’s connection to residents’ health. Since the plan’s implementation, Curridabat has transformed its streets into pollinator corridors, covered the city with educational information about bees and plants, and reforested. Annual global food production worth between