Bees for Development Journal 106
FOREST CONSERVERS
JL What is kobo? BA Forest beekeeping depends upon hanging hives high in trees and in the kobo system families own groups of trees in which they can place their hives. These trees cannot be cut down and no one else can use these trees for beekeeping. However, because this is a traditional system – not written down or recognised by government – it was hard for the community to fully maintain the system. With the PFM forest protection agreement the kobo system and forest beekeeping is stronger than ever and their tradition has been recognised! JL You still faced the challenge of increasing the monetary value of the honey. How did you do that? BA We knew that beekeepers would have to sell their honey in bulk to attract the best buyers and we looked at different group structures for collective selling: associations, co-operatives, partnerships, private limited companies (plcs) and unions. The farmers chose plcs knowing these would be totally free from government interference. Seven honey trading plcs were established, each with 30-50 members. JL Who are the ‘best buyers’ that you mentioned? BA We looked for national honey trading and processing companies and identified two that were interested in our honey: Beza Mar and Tutu Mar. They began buying honey from the seven plcs. Initially the buyers complained that the way the honey was handled and stored was poor so we trained the beekeepers to improve this. We supported them for six years in organisation, business and quality control systems. Now they do everything on their own. They even buy honey from outside their companies so they can offer more to the buyers who have found export markets. JL How did the beekeepers sell their honey before and why is the new approach better? BA Before the Project they sold honey to local traders who offered low prices and were not always reliable. Sometimes the beekeepers struggled to sell all their honey. In fact even now these seven plcs do not trade in all the honey from the area. There are many beekeepers outside the plcs and there are still many local traders too. Some of these traders’ businesses have grown in recent years and are buying large quantities of honey from individual beekeepers – up to 40 tonnes in one case – and they are also selling to Beza Mar. So local traders have benefitted. The farmers much prefer the company system (although they complain about the 30% tax on profit) because it is their business, they control everything, and earn dividends. *Non-Timber Forest Product and Participatory Forest Management
Keywords: Ethiopia, forest conservation, frame hive, honey trade, kobo, local-style hive, non-timber forest product, top-bar hive Mr Biniyam Abebe is a specialist for the NTFP-PFM* Project based in three zones in south-west Ethiopia, aiming to secure forest conservation through forest-based economic incentives. Mr Abebe was interviewed by Janet Lowore from BfD, during the ApiTrade Africa ApiExpo held in Addis Ababa in September 2012. JL In some countries in Africa, beekeepers are accused of being ‘forest destroyers’ because they cause fires when they harvest honey. In your area it is the opposite and beekeepers are regarded as ‘forest conservers’: please explain more. BA Beekeepers do not cause fires. The forests of south-west Ethiopia are moist forests, not dry, and more importantly the beekeepers are careful when they harvest honey. They use a little smoke and special herbs. This is not something the Project has taught them, they are using well-established local methods. JL On your stand you are displaying different hive types: local-style, top-bar and frame hives. Which do you promote? BA During the 1990s the forests in this region suffered from degradation as a result of smallholders clearing them for farming, and pressure from large-scale farm investment. The NTFP-PFM Project was introduced in 2003 with the aim of helping communities to start alternative non-timber income generating activities which could alleviate the pressure on the forest. Beekeeping was one of these activities and we introduced on-farm beekeeping with frame hives and top-bar hives. JL Was it successful? BA Only partly. During our mid-term review we learned that we had made a mistake: we overlooked the importance of forest beekeeping. We realised that to achieve forest conservation it would be better to increase the monetary value of the forest by marketing non-timber forest products. Therefore we turned our attention away from on-farm beekeeping and back to forest beekeeping. Forest beekeeping keeps people connected with the forest and this is essential if they are to conserve it. We could see that the honey quality from the local hives was just as good as from ‘modern’ frame hives so we scaled back from introducing ‘modern’ methods. Instead we began to think how we could increase the value of the honey the beekeepers had always been producing from the forest. JL Are these gazetted forest reserves? BA No, the forests belong to the community. Some traditional ownership and management practices exist but these were not well recognised and outsiders did not respect the local rules. This meant that the forest was vulnerable to over-exploitation. The Project changed all this: at the heart of participatory forest management is the idea that local communities can, and will, protect forests that are important for their livelihoods, provided there is a legal mechanism by which they can protect the forest and enforce rules. The Project demarcated 60,000 ha of forest designated for PFM and communities signed agreements with the government. These agreements gave the community the rights to use the forest, protect the forest and enforce rules. JL Has this process reduced deforestation? BA Yes, very much indeed: areas of forest which had been degraded are now regenerating and also grazing in the forest has stopped. One very important change has been the strengthening of the traditional kobo system.
Project statistics provided by Biniyam Abebe
1
Maximum amount of honey sold by one plc in one year
60 tonnes
Estimated total honey yield from the whole area
> 1,000 tonnes
Proportion of the honey harvest from bamboo and log hives
99%
Average number of colonies owned by one beekeeper
75 colonies1
Main bee forage in the area
Schefflera abyssinica
Income earned from honey sales/beekeeper/year
500 kg x 50 birr = 25,000 birr 25,000 birr = US$1,350; €1,000
Average production from one colony/year/local-style hive = 7 kg
We thank Mr Abebe for the interesting information he has shared with us. 6
