2 minute read
Beekeeping in Ixcán, Quiché in northern Guatemala
Antonio Reyes Montejo, Field Technician, EcoLogic Development Fund Quetzaltenango, Guatemala
The beekeeping project in Ixcán, Quiché began in 2011. It resulted from a collaboration between EcoLogic Development Fund and Heifer International, with 100 bee hives being provided to 50 families. These families made the commitment to "pass on the gift" which means that they had to multiply their bees and give two colonies to another family.
Project goal
I am one of two beekeeping technicians responsible for providing technical assistance and training, as well as inputs to beekeepers. Our goal has been to provide beekeepers with best practices to help increase production. For example, we have been working on reducing moisture levels to improve the quality of honey. We are now working with 250 beekeepers, many of whom are part of the “pass on the gift” process and others have taken it up on their own until they reach 10, 20, or 30 colonies.
Beekeepers are provided with training on best practices to help increase production
Photos © Antonio Reyes Montejo
Collaboration
We have two centrifugal honey extractors and equipment for harvesting for the seven communities in which EcoLogic is working. The equipment is shared during harvest time – with transportation mostly by foot. We have trained Apicultural Promoters also, who are local leaders in each community. They are responsible for helping other members of the community and for the necessary equipment.
In many communities there is co-ordination among beekeepers. At harvest time they rotate the work, volunteering in each other’s apiaries, thus avoiding labour costs. It has been possible for beekeepers to take advantage of their resources, such as replacing sugarbased syrup with sugarcane juice for supplemental feeding during winter when there is a shortage of nectar.
Outcomes
Beekeeping in Ixcán is growing as there is a favourable climate and plenty of vegetation and a diversity of species to support bees.
Luis Paau, one of the beekeepers said: “I had nothing, and this for me has been a great change. I acquired my first hives and year after year I increased them. Now I have twenty colonies. I dare to say that we are a strong and empowered group with the desire to continue working and fighting for what we love most.’’
Background
Antonio Reyes Montejo is Project Technician for EcoLogic's joint work with our local partner, Mancomunidad Frontera del Norte (MFN). EcoLogic Development Fund, a 501(c)(3) organisation founded in 1993, works to empower rural and indigenous people to restore and protect tropical ecosystems. We work in Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico in some of the world’s most biologically diverse ecosystems.
MFN was created in 2005 with the integration of six municipalities in northern Guatemala to promote sustainable development through inter-municipal co-operation. Rural families in Guatemala depend on forest ecosystems for their livelihoods and survival, often through subsistence agriculture. Persistent poverty leaves many farmers with little choice but to use their land unsustainably and with an immediateterm perspective, primarily via slash-and-burn agriculture. This technique of cutting a portion of the forest and burning debris to release nitrogen into the soil has negative environmental impacts. EcoLogic and MFN are implementing a series of interrelated strategies to address this, including beekeeping and sustainable agriculture, building local capacity for the implementation of these initiatives, and linking them to incentives and markets.
Originally published in Spanish. Translation by Barbara Vallarino, Executive Director, EcoLogic Development Fund.
Honey harvest in San Antonio Tzeja
Two centrifugal honey extractors are shared between the seven communities where EcoLogic works
Participant families agree to “pass on the gift”: multiply their bees and give two colonies to another family
