BEEKEEPING
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DEVELOPMENT
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BRAZIL Our intention is to alert people to the ecological value of bees. Until now all swarms appearing in the city were exterminated, because people are not aware of the value of bees:
Since 1992 my partner, Leila Martini and have captured over 300 swarms in Sorocaba and now we need other beekeepers to help us with this. We work entirely on a voluntary basis and have been invited to demonstrate our activity to the newspapers and on TV. Now we are starting another project to benefit our city: we are establishing a municipal apiary. Street boys will be able to develop beekeeping as a source of income and have a profession too. We will include honey in the school snacks distributed by health posts and day nurseries providing food to poor people |
Ménica Grohmann and Leila Martini
Since we started this work our activities have increased continuously, with invitations to teach schoo!children and show bees in glass boxes.
my visit - seeing both sides in tune with each other and determined to work out a solution. It's certainly better than having the government impose something uninformed and having beekeepers trying to get around it”.
On a recent mission, Cutts inspected hives on all four islands. He had hoped to inspect and certify at least 20% of the islands’ apiaries, but poor weather put an end to those hopes. Stil’ he managed to see enough to come away pleased about the continued state of development of the beekeeping business, “I’m happy to say that the environment is really very clean”, Cutts said. “There had been some
us.
problems in St Vincent in the past. However, didn't find anything this time, which means the beekeepers are doing a good job. It’s under control.”
Ménica Grohmann - Beekeeping & Development's correspondent in Brazil
Cutts said he did find one particular pest on three of the islands, and he believes the
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People are very receptive to our ideas and are interested in the great benefits that bees give
problem is probably the result of importing infected queens from the United States. And that’s why he's so pleased about finding both the beekeeping industry and the quarantine service reading from the same page. “The quarantine is very important”, he said. “The beekeepers understand the need as it relates to their business, and the quarantine people understand what the businesses mee to their economies. it’s a great feeling, seeing them work together”.
Communiqué Vol. 9 No 4
GUINEA One of Ménica Grohmann and Leila Martini’s apiaries
DOMINICA, GRENADA, ST LUCIA,
ST VINCENT Beekeepers and government quarantine officers are co-operating in developing quarantine standards in these four nations. The rules are aimed at protecting the natural
environment for the beekeeping industry. “It's a very important step,” said volunteer consultant Laurence Cutts of Gainesville, USA, who is the State of Florida's chief of apiary
inspection. “The beekeepers and the quarantine officers are aware of the dangers of disease to bee colonies, and they're working on the same wavelength. That's the real success of
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The Guinea Natural Resource Management Project has been focusing efforts towards honey and wax production as an incomegenerating activity. The project is based in the Fouta Djallon Highlands, referred to as the “water tower of West Africa”, the source of major rivers such as the Niger and the Gambia. The Dadant hive was introduced to Guinea during the early 1970s, but the National Apiculture Centre has confirmed the hive to be neither cost-effective nor practical. The Kenya top-bar hive has been in use for over five years, and it is proving to be productive and efficient. Fifteen beekeepers in the Diaforé watershed are participating in a three-apiary demonstration of 30 hives So far, the hive
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ABees for Development publication
