AAA Conference in Vietnam

AAA is the Asian Apicultural Association. AAA exists to link people in Asia and beyond who are interested in Asian bees and Asian beekeeping. AAA functions by having Chapters (Representatives) in almost every Asian country, which together form network for information flow. AAA is administered from the Honeybee Science Research Center of Tamagawa University, Japan.

AAA welcomes new members. A list of all Asian countries with Chapters, and contact names and addresses was published in B&DA4O, page 10. The AAA Membership is USS$20 per year, or the local equivalent. If you live in one of the countries with representative, contact them direct.

Hanoi is city of unexpected, tranquil beauty. A city with green lakes, red pagodas, tree-lined boulevards, and streets full of bicycles and cyclos (rick-shaws). Market streets spilling over with every kind of merchandise: produce, videos, silks, baskets, plastics. All mixed with grand buildings in the style of French villas, in shades of muted yellow, standing amid cool, leafy precincts. In the centre of Hanoi is Ho Chi Minh Museum. This was the setting for AAA’s third Conference.

People from Africa, America, Australasia, Europe and the Middle East joined representatives from most Asian countries to participate in the Conference. In the centre of the Museum is an excellent lecture hall, and surrounding this are areas where beekeeping displays from around Asia were presented, and where the all-important meetings between friends and colleagues could take place.

And there was plenty to talk about: newly identified honeybee species, fresh insights into how honey is harvested from bees, new efforts to stimulate beekeeping in rural development. Apiculturalists in different fields presented their recent work. These were some of the highlights:

- Traditional Tikung beekeeping, similar to the Apis dorsata rafter beekeeping of South Vietnam, is practised in Indonesia in West Kalimantan and Bilitung Island (see picture below right).

- Professor Niko Koeniger from Germany presented the research of his team on Apis nuluensis, the honeybee they have newly described from Borneo. (Nuluensis means belonging to mountains).

- Professor Gard Otis from Canada described work with Ms Soesilawati Hadisoesilo on Apis nigrocincta, another previously unrecognised honeybee species from Indonesia.

- Ms Nguyen Thu Hang described Vietnam's work since 1989 to train farmers in Apis cerana beekeeping. A “Training of Trainers” programme is meeting with success.

- Mr Michael Gries (a member of the Koeniger team) showed a fascinating video of honey hunters filmed using night-sight technology. These honey hunters are in the forests of Sabah (Borneo) collecting honey from the giant bee, Apis dorsata. The bees are nesting 20 m above ground in trees of the rainforest, and honey hunting is always done only on completely dark, moon-less nights. The video unveiled secrets, revealing the true skill and horror of the work involved.

- Professor Sasaki from Tamagawa University, Japan, described his team’s work to explain why Apis mellifera (the European honeybee) ventilates at the hive entrance facing in towards the hive, whereas Apis cerana (the Asian honeybee) faces the other way. Are Apis cerana facing outwards so they can watch for approaching predators?

- Dr Naomi Saville described her work to promote sustainable beekeeping in a remote part of Western Nepal. The conclusion? Truly participatory development requires great commitment!

Of course there were many other interesting presentations: too many to mention here. All presentations will be published in the Conference Proceedings.

Watch this space for detail

AAA NEWS

Changes at the top!

Mr Tetsuo Sakai, the Founding President of AAA has retired. Conference delegates thanked him warmly for his work in initiating AAA.

Professor Mitsuo Matsuka now carries the torch as President of AAA. Professor Matsuka’s previous role as Secretary General is filled by Dr Tadaharu Yoshida, whose shoes as Treasurer of the Association, are filled by Dr Jun Nakamura.

BEEKEEPING IN VIETNAM

The majority of beekeepers in Vietnam keep a small number of colonies of the native honeybee Apis cerana. These might be kept in horizontal or vertical log hives, or in frame hives. There are also large-scale commercial enterprises keeping both Apis cerana and Apis mellifera, the introduced ‘European’ honeybee. There are about 900 of these large-scale enterprises keeping up to 1000 colonies in each apiary and moving them around to take advantage of honey flows. There are also beekeepers harvesting from Apis dorsata colonies (featured in the video, Rafter beekeeping in Vietnam)

The main problems for the native honeybee, Apis cerana, are the diseases sacbrood and European foulbraod. Sacbrood disease seems to arrive in four year cycles. At first sacbrood had severe impact on Vietnamese beekeeping but biological, integrated methods have now been developed to control it. Bee breeding is underway to select for bees showing resistance to these diseases.

The main problems for imported Apis mellifera are the bee mites Varroa jacobsoni and Tropilaelaps clareae. Nevertheless these are now effectively controlled by biological methods, practised simultaneously by beekeepers in each area

Beekeeping in Vietnam is well supported by the Ministry of Agriculture's Bee Research and Development Centre. This Centre has a staff of 35, including 20 researchers. The Centre provides advice and training to beekeepers. There are also more bee research units within the Universities of Vietnam.

Vietnam’s annual honey production is around 2500 tonnes, of which half is exported. VINAPI (The Apicultural Corporation) and the Vietnam Apicultural Association are responsible for producing, processing and exporting honeybee products. A recent development has been the arrangement between VINAPI and TransFair International to export fair-traded honey to Europe. By this arrangement Vietnamese beekeepers are guaranteed fair price for their honey.

Vietnam also produces about two tonnes of royal jelly each year - this is exported to Japan and Europe.

NEXT CONFERENCE

The next AAA Conference will take place in Kathmandu, Nepal in 1998. Keep reading B&D for further details.