Bees for Development Journal 130 March 2019
Visual Learning Aids and Beekeeping Darcy Gray, Beekeeping Specialist, Project Renitantely, SEED Madagascar, Fort Dauphin, Madagascar Background
SEED Madagascar is a sustainable development organisation in southeast Madagascar taking a holistic approach to diversifying livelihoods and incentivising conservation practice. One Project, Renitantely (means honey bee in Malagasy), empowers farmers to conserve the indigenous honey bee race Apis mellifera unicolor through education and the financial incentives of honey and wax production. To effectively communicate beekeeping skills and biology to an often-illiterate audience who lack formal education, the team has developed Visual Learning Aids to explain concepts using creative imagery and few words.
The Project is training 78 beekeepers from six communities, Fokontany, in the Anosy region. In this region, wild and managed colonies are suffering dramatic losses from Varroa destructor, compounded by widespread deforestation which eliminates forage for the bees.
Training workshops
To give beekeepers robust beekeeping skills, the Project runs workshops in each community on: • Hive construction • The life cycle of the honey bee • Populating hives • Keeping healthy colonies • Disease and pest management
Drawings © Harriet Stigler
• Honey and wax harvesting
In a VLA designed by Harriet Stigler, the changing jobs of honey bees in a hive are depicted alongside typical responsibilities of Malagasy women 6
