Editorials

I am very pleased to announce that starting with this special issue, we have joined forces with Bees for Development for the furtherance of sustainable, bee-friendly, ‘Naturebased’ beekeeping around the world.

We have very much to learn from the activities of Bees for Development who for decades have been involved with nature-based, local, low-input projects in developing countries, projects that have enabled many small communities to improve their livelihoods through the production and marketing of hive products.

The organisation has provided training in many areas of beekeeping, including the construction of hives from renewable local resources, management of colonies with minimal interference, the hygienic handling and packaging of products that have been harvested as well as providing all-important marketing skills.

Of course, the beekeeping projects are not just aimed at raising revenue for cash strapped communities, but also for providing wholesome and natural foods so important for the peoples' health and well being.

For those over recent years who have turned to traditional methods of beekeeping, whether they are using skeps, log hives, or other homes in which bees are allowed to build combs and make nests in the way that nature attended; the continued, uninterrupted success of centuries-old practices in ‘developing’ countries show that these peoples are able to be a guiding light for their modern contemporaries whose bees are experiencing greater problems as each year goes by.

We hope that this combined initiative will help to meet the needs of beekeepers in many parts of the world, and of course, most importantly too, the bees of whom they are guardians.

John Phipps, 1st October, 2022

Dear Friends

This is an innovative edition of Bees for Development Journal in which we join up with our friends at Natural Bee Husbandry magazine, to bring you this special combined edition.

To celebrate this unique event, the Bees for Development team have endeavoured to describe the philosophy that has informed our work over the past thirty years, and we therefore present here for the first time our Nature-based Beekeeping Approach. Ours is not a prescriptive approach, describing one design of hive or a single way of doing things – it is beekeeping aimed at a wider agenda, addressing issues of social justice, and combining care for bees and the wider environment. We believe that as a reader of this magazine, you may find that your beekeeping can be well defined within this approach.

It is something of an experiment for us to join up with Natural Bee Husbandry in this way, and we thank our friends there, and especially John Phipps for bringing this idea to fruition. We feel that existing readers of both magazines will appreciate the wider scope provided by this joint edition, and we look forward to hearing your views - do let us know!

Nicola Bradbear, Bees for Development.

Bees for Development Journal

ISSN number 1477-6588. Produced quarterly, we have readers in 128 countries. Editor: Nicola Bradbear PhD MBE; Coordinator Helen Jackson BSc and Production Coordinator Giacomo Ciriello PhD. Subscriptions cost £30 per year:

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Bees for Development works to assist beekeepers in developing nations

Bees for Development gratefully acknowledge: ADM, Bees for Development North America, Charles Hayward Foundation, Darwin Initiative, Didymus Charity, E H Thorne (Beehives) Ltd, Ethiopiaid, Euromonitor International, Healing Herbs, Hiscox Foundation, Incubeta, John Paul Mitchell Systems, Rowse Honey Ltd, Welsh Government, Yasaeng Beekeeping Supplies and many other generous organisations and individuals.

Copyright

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