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Size 164,000 km
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Population 418,000 of diverse ethnic and religious decent. About one third are of Creole origin, with similar proportions with cast Indian heritage. About 15% of the population are Javanese, while I 0% are descendants of former slaves.
Location Suriname is in South America, North of the Amazon Delta in the Guyana Shield, with Guyana to the West, French-Guiana to the East, Brazil to the South and the Atlantic Ocean in the North. Some development organisations include Suriname within the Caribbean region. Capital Paramaribo
Main agriculture Suriname enjoys a range of agricultural riches. The coastal lowlands provide rich soil for a variety of crops, many of ehich are export earners. Banana and - • rice contribute an important stream of ' revenue although by no means as large as the bauxite sector. Bees There are eight species of indigenous stingless bees in Surinam. European honeybees Apis mellifera were introduced at the beginning of the 20th Century. Beekeeping Earliest records of beekeeping date back to the 1700s when wax was being exported from Suriname.
By the 1930s beekeeping was flourishing. 99 recorded beekeepers with 3340 hives shipped honey to the Netherlands and other countries in western Europe. By the end of the I 960s little remained of this industry and honey was being imported for local consumption.
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Africanized honeybees Africanized bees arrived in 1975 and a radical reduction in beekeeping took place. In 1977 842 hives were reported. By 1982 only 82 hives remained. In 1982 a beekeeping promotion project was launched to deal with keeping Africanized honeybees. By 1998, 60 beekeepers were keeping a total of I 500 hives. In the 1990s lack of beekeeping supplies, sites for apiaries and low credit for beginning beekeeping kept beekeeper numbers low.
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Current status 30 beekeepers with I 150 hives
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Honey production Estimated 1998 figure: 25,000 litres. Local annual demand for honey is 40,000-50,000 litres per year. The typical annual yield per colony is 25 kg. Honeybee diseases, pests and predators The most destructive pest is wax moth. Beekeeping Association Parwa Beekeepers' Association and the Women's Beekeepers' Association, Oni.
Honey harvest in Coronie
Research and Training The Division of Beekeeping within the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Animal Husbandry is conducting practical research on the management of Africanized honeybees. The Division is also conducting extension programmes assisting practising beekeepers with their techniques. Projects A project was launched to train women in beekeeping financed by GTZ, Germany and the NGO Wan Ati based in The Netherlands.
Beekeeping training in Suriname We are grateful to Mr Mohammed
S Khodabaks for providing this
information and photographs
Meet delegates from Suriname at the Second Caribbean Congress in Nevis (see page 12 for details)
A Bees for Development publication - Page 7
