News

CAMEROON

More assistance please!

Spurred on and encouraged by BfD Journal and the Workshop Box we received from Bees for Development, we want to make beekeeping our priority activity. We manage our own hives and we have also a shared apiary and the land on which to build a processing centre. We are in the process of forming an association of beekeeping groups affiliated to our own, with the aim of exporting honey. To be more effective, we have split our group into two: The Bambui Teachers' Association and The Bambui Organic Farmers Common Initiative Group.

We held our first one-day seminar in Bambui in September 2002 with 60 participants attending. We hope to organise more seminars in other villages in our Province to enlist at least 3,000 beekeepers, but we face difficulties. The first seminar cost much money, time, energy and travelling. Most people trekked to the venue, some arrived late and few had anything to eat. We are thinking hard how we can organise seminars in other villages that are far from Bambui. In this respect we would appreciate assistance.

Nwunfor Peter Muma, Bambui Teachers Association, Bamenda

If you can help the Bambui beekeepers please contact them c/o Bees for Development

CUBA

The Apimondia Apitherapy Commission

held a symposium in Havana in October 2002.

Over 180 people from 14 different countries took part, with 53 Cuban health institutions represented.

Six invited experts worked alongside five Cuban experts to pass on their knowledge of apitherapy. Participants studied biology, pharmacy and medicine, and were able to learn in depth about apitherapy. The friendly atmosphere of this international gathering led to many interesting discussions.

Roch Domerego, Apimondia Standing, Commission for Apitherapy

ECUADOR

Assistance needed in Morona Santiago

Asociacién de Trabajadores Agropecuarios Santa Isabel de Macas wants to help 15 families to start beekeeping as an income-yielding undertaking based on, but not destructive to, the environment. Someone earning an income from beekeeping quickly becomes an advocate for forest preservation. Beekeeping also lessens the likelihood of bush fires started by honey hunters when they smoke wild colonies.

Apiculture is an activity that is recognised by the local culture. Our idea is to build a business and to sell honey locally and regionally, ensuring a fair price for the beekeepers as well as increasing crop production especially coffee, cocoa, lemon and orange.

Our project will help the families involved and also the 15,000 inhabitants of Macas, the capital of Morona Santiago Province Any assistance would be gratefully received.

Danilo Tayopanta, Project Director

If you would like to help please contact the Association c/o Bees for Development

GHANA

A viable venture

The Centre for Development of Humanity held a five-day workshop for 100 participants with the theme Making beekeeping a viable venture. Participants from two community-based groups heard about the value and practice of beekeeping: species and races of bees; the first season; honey harvesting and processing wax.

Robert N Kpontsu, Nickliz Foundation Hohoe

FRANCE

French beekeepers report the deaths of millions of bees as a result of pesticide spraying on farmland. 4,000 colonies in southwest France and hundreds more in Brittany have been destroyed. Beekeepers are losing honey and witnessing their bees suffering painful deaths. 20,000 plant species in France are dependent upon bees for their survival so this catastrophe will have environmental as well as financial implications. The beekeepers' anger has resulted in a series of lawsuits. In the southwest a criminal inquiry led to the managers of two local firms being charged on suspicion of importing black market Spanish pesticides. The judge in charge believes he is on the trail of an illegal pesticide trade. Not all beekeepers share his view: some blame the authorised pesticide Gaucho, whilst others say the problem is the multitude of different pesticides used by farmers.

The Times, 2002

KENYA

Honey Care Africa, based in Nairobi, has won an Equator Initiative Award. They received a US$30,000 prize, certificate and trophy, awarded at the Earth Summit in Johannesburg in 2002. The Equator Initiative Awards, sponsored by UNDP in partnership with the Government of Canada, IUCN, Nature Conservancy and others, honour community projects that represent outstanding efforts to reduce poverty through the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. Honey Care Africa's business model enables local farmers to become beekeepers via a small-scale financing programme. As prize winners Honey Care Africa will be involved in a 2003 campaign to improve community-based knowledge, as well as help transfer their successful environmentally-friendly business practices at the national and international level.

Source: HISD Linkages Update, January 2003

MOROCCO

For over 20 years, NEF's beekeeping programmes have helped entrepreneurs in Morocco, Sudan, and Swaziland make hives, research bees, understand the relationships between environmental protection and increased production, and adopt marketing techniques to improve their business.

There are over 20,000 beekeepers in Morocco and honey is an important product, with most sold locally. Jasmine, lavender and orange blossom are a few of the many speciality honeys produced, reflecting the rich variety of North Africa's flowering plants.

SOUTH AFRICA

Badger friendly honey

When the giant Woolworths chain discovered that some beekeeping methods in South Africa were further threatening the already endangered honey badger, they launched a ‘badger friendly’ range of honey. This has proved to be a commercial and environmental success. The National Beekeepers’

Association has adopted a badger friendly code of practice whilst promoting responsible beekeeping practice. Johan Ferreira, Head of Food Technology at Woolworths says, "The project quickly gained momentum. Although it has cost us both time and money it brought about a change in the industry, significant media interest and an entirely unexpected 50% increase in the sale of our honey’.

Source: NWFP-Digest-L No 12/02

UK

Biological control to the rescue

Varroa destructor was discovered in the UK in 1992. Current control measures rely on chemical pesticides, but with resistance to approved pyrethroid acaracides now reported in some areas, alternative, more eco-friendly forms of management are urgently required.

Biological control technologies have the potential to revolutionise pest management strategies by moving them away from synthetic pesticides. Biological control exploits the natural enemies of pests. Because no natural enemies have been found causing population decline of Varroa in honeybee colonies, little work has been done on biological control. However, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs have commissioned Horticulture Research International and ' Rothamsted Research to move their research into a second phase, which will examine the effects of selected fungi on Varroa populations, coupled with studies of fungal ecophysiology and ecological risk assessment.

VIETNAM

Vietnamese beekeepers reported a record honey production in 2001. The total honey crop was estimated at 13,500 tonnes, with about 11,300 tonnes exported. All the beekeepers are very happy to have had such a good crop at a profitable price, and that the Vietnamese media reported on this good outcome!

Dinh Quyet Tam, President, Vietnam Beekeepers' Association

NIGERIA

Beekeeping in Kaduna State

An early article (written in 1927) claims that Zaria people who make up today's Kaduna State were probably the originators of beekeeping in Nigeria. In northern Kaduna State traditional straw hives are hung in trees, whilst in southern areas basket, clay and pot hives are used. The honeybee Apis mellifera adansonii is indigenous.

Current beekeeping training includes construction of top-bar and frame hives, baiting and capturing swarms, dividing colonies and transfer of wild colonies, the use of honey extractors and presses, and the use of protective clothing and smokers.

A survey in 2000 revealed that the majority of beekeepers in Kaduna State are men under 40 years old. Women play an active role in the processing and marketing of honey. All respondents are engaged in other farming enterprises and/or occupations in addition to beekeeping and own an average of eight hives.

Beekeepers using top-bar or frame hives harvest 12 kg of honey annually. Annual average beeswax production per hive is 1 kg. In the survey, honey sold for N300 (€2.7, US$3.0) per kg and beeswax for N65 (€0.58, US$0.65) per kg. The total value of bee products per annum per hive was N3,631 (€22.7, US$36.3). All products are marketed locally, with limited export.

The average rate of return on investment (Net Farm Income + Total Cost) of 166% suggests honey production using top-bar or frame hives is profitable. Given the high return per colony it is surprising that beekeepers have not fully utilised their apiaries. Constraints to increased honey production include: vandalism, inadequate knowledge of queen rearing, indiscriminate bush fires, lack of known government policy and the effects of pests, especially wax moth.

S O Fadare, Ikeja