How do we voice the political interests of birds and bees? How do we represent the rights of trees? Meet the Species’ Ambassadors of Denmark.
Welcome to Species’ Ambassadors (Danish: Arternes Ambassadører) We are driven by a deep love of biodiversity. We deeply appreciate all the strange, fascinating, ugly and cute creatures within our neighbourhoods and we want them to thrive.
Denmark is home to 39,000 different species of wonderful and weird insects, birds, mammals, plants and mushrooms. Yet, when has any local politician last considered the needs of wild bees and oak trees when sketching out a new road? When have any urban planners last asked the opinion of an owl or swallow when designing a building?
Consider this: Could we think of our feathery, six-legged, and blossoming more-than-human neighbours as marginalized citizens excluded from the democractic processes?
We wanted to see what happens, when more-than-human species can take part in local democracy. Adopting an intentionally playful approach, we launched what was then called City of Species (Dansih: Arternes Aarhus) in 2017 with the appointment of 33 species’ ambassadors for local, wild species living in the municipality of Aarhus. Since then, the concept has inspired similar initiatives to form in a range of cities across the country including: : Arternes Aalborg, Arternes Ambassade København, Arternes Fredericia, Arternes Viborg , Arternes Silkeborg and Arternes Vejle.
In 2025 we have reached approx. 100 species ambassadors at the national level.
We define a species’ ambassador as a human person who is engaged in giving biodiversity a stronger voice in social /political debates of our societies by acting as spokesperson or representative for a specific species. This could be an animal, plant or species of fungi or algae – as long as the species is wild (not domestic), and living in Denmark.
Many of our ambassadors represent threatened or vulnerable species, such as species of wild bees, bats or endangered birds or plants. Other ambassadors represent species that might be thriving or abundant, but which are unpopular or even hated such as moles, dandelions, seagulls or wolves.
Anyone living in Denmark can become an ambassador. As we like to say: “you don’t have to be an expert, you will become an expert”. Hence, our group of ambassadors is diverse; it includes students as well as retirees, artists as well as entrepreneurs. But all have one thing in common: their hearts beat for biodiversity – and the idea of giving more-than-humans a stronger voice in the democratic process.
Meet four ambassadors in these portraits from Aarhus : Linden tree ambassador Hannah, To bee or not to bee ambassador, The cutest beetle in town.
In the autumn of 2024 we formed the national association Species’ Ambassadors (Arternes Ambassadører) as a way of connecting and strengthening the different local initiatives and all the species’ ambassadors across the nation.
In 2024 we also formed diplomatic bonds with similar initiatives in Sweden: Arternas Ambassad Viskan and in Germany: Organisms Democracy.
Together with these initiatives and several other Nordic partners we are currently developing the Nordic Summit of Species, a two-day event which will take place on 12th-13th of September 2025 at VIA University College, Aarhus C. We We are in the middle of planning all the details of the summit check the webpage for a programme, practical details and registration form!