Notice board

PROJECT PROFILES REQUESTED

Show the visitors to Amsterdam Zoo the importance of beekeeping for the lives and well-being of rural communities!

Send us your project profile and history on a postcard, photograph or drawing. The collection will be shown during the Educational Exhibition on Beekeeping for Rural Development. Make sure we have your information by 20 July 2003.

HONEY FOR SALE

We are writing from Guinea Bissau. We have a large quantity of honey for sale and are interested to hear from buyers.

Contact: Aji Pierre Dasilva e-mail Infilhos@hotmail.com

TAKE NOTE

Bees for Development features in the May 2003 edition of The Ecologist: the influential environmental magazine.

See: Volume 33, N°4: 54-55

PROJECT SUPPORT

FAO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, supports beekeeping projects in developing countries.

For projects with budgets under US$10,000, beekeepers’ groups and associations may apply for small project funding from the TeleFood Special Fund. Request documents should include a brief description of the project's objectives, the proposed food production or income generating activities, the work plan, the number of participants, a detailed list of inputs with cost estimates and the reporting arrangements. Submit your request to the office of FAO or UNDP in your country.

Applications for projects with budgets over US$10,000 must be submitted through a Government Ministry. See www.fao.org.

BEEKEEPERS' SAFARIS

Friendly holidays run in co-operation with overseas partners as part of Bees for Development's work to raise awareness of beekeeping in development.

Safari to Tobago and Trinidad 8-17 March 2004

Safari to South India dates to be confirmed

Details from Bees for Development and on our website

REGISTER YOUR PROTEST

Less than 3% of Kenya's land is forested and the Government has authorised the destruction of more than 170,000 acres of remaining forest. Even in our long history of forest destruction, the massive scale of these excisions is unprecedented. And they will be disastrous for all of us. Our country desperately needs to keep the forests we have left. Without them, droughts will get worse, power shortages will increase, food production will suffer, and tourism will decline. If we do not protect our remaining forests, Kenya will become progressively thirstier, hungrier, uglier and poorer. Join the fight to save our forests.

MEETING INFORMATION

Bees for Development helps projects in developing countries with copies of BfD Journal and other information for use at training courses and workshops. We must receive notice and number of participants at least three months ahead of the meeting date.

Organisations with some resources available can order o Workshop Box for 50 per 25 participants, including surface mail delivery. See ways to pay on page 15.

GLOBAL THOUGHTS

The First International START Young Scientists’ Global Change Conference takes place in November 2003. Young scientists (under 35) are invited to submit presentations on the physical, biological and human aspects of global change. Read: www.start.org/Feilowships/ YS_Conference.html

BEE BOOKS NEW AND OLD

10 Quay Road, Charlestown, PL25 3NX,

UK, for your new and second-hand books. Telephone +44 (0)172 676 844 or www. honeyshop.co.uk

ANTENNAE UP

You are invited to send articles and information for possible inclusion in a future edition of BD Journal.

Digital images: (by e-mail or on PC format CD). We recommend that you initially send low resolution copies for approval. Images for publication must be a minimum of 300 dpi/ppi resolution .TIF or .JPEG files.

Please do not scan multiple images and send them as one file. We require separate files for each image. Each file must be clearly identified in relation to any caption required.

Photographs: Please provide prints and not transparencies.

ADVERTISING WITH BFD

BfD Journal offers a great chance to reach readers in over 100 countries. Quarter page, two-colour advertisements cost 65; full page 200. Other sizes available: our rate card is available from the address below. Notice Board items 0.50 per word. Enclosures accepted.

Banners on BfD's website Advertise to thousands via our website. See www.beesfordevelopment.org for details.

(Charges are subject to VAT in EC countries)

E-mail info@beesfordevelopment.org

GHANA

Honey in demand

Honey production in Ghana is low compared with the demand from local and external markets. During the main honey harvesting season (February to April), all varieties of honey are available on the market. A large percentage of honey comes from honey hunters who exploit honeybee colonies in the forests.

Unfortunately, the quality of this honey may be questionable when poor handling practices and bad processing methods render the product unwholesome. However many beekeepers harvest honey and beeswax of high quality. The honey could be almost certainly certified as organic since the forage sources for the bees are the natural tropical forests found all over the country. Many Ghanaian farmers are small scale and use little or no agrochemicals in their operations. Nectar sources from cultivated plants are therefore’ uncontaminated and pollution-free. Beekeepers do not use any form of chemical since the local honeybee Apis mellifera adansonii is free from disease. Pests of bees, which are numerous in the environment, are mainly outside the nest and are controlled by sound apiary management practices.

This background gives Ghanaian beekeepers an advantage in the supply of high quality bee products. It is no wonder that many beekeepers have received enquiries from bee product companies in Europe (especially the UK) for the purchase of Ghanaian honey and beeswax. The companies have had to turn elsewhere for supplies as a result of the ban on Chinese honey in the EU (see BfDJ 63). There is therefore a need for beekeepers in Ghana and other countries of West Africa to expand production to meet the increased demand.

Kwame Aidoo, BfDJ's Correspondent in Ghana

Beekeeping success

Viable beekeeping is now well established, five years after its implementation in the rainforests of the Western Region of Ghana. Samartex Co Ltd, a major producer of timber and plywood, is active in the promotion of income-generation for farmers through non-timber forest products (NTFP}. Besides afforestation with precious timber species, apiculture has become a successful activity for gaining considerable side income. It might also release, at least on a moderate scale, the increasing pressure on the remaining rainforests, which are under threat from slash-and-burn practices to clear land for cultivation. The interest of farmers to participate in the programme is increasing and Samartex will continue providing hives and equipment on a loan basis to cover the total concessionary area of 700,000 ha. Customers at the local markets are aware of the superior quality of the honey, compared to that from honey-hunting which is often a mixture of bee brood, pollen, wax, charcoal and is a bitter, dark degenerated stuff that was once honey.... Due to extreme annual rainfall of more than 4000 mm, honey yields are modest at 8 kg per colony per year. However farmers profit also from secured pollination of cocoa and other cash crops. In addition, the key role of honeybees as the pollinators of wild plants means that apiculture is important for the enhancement of biodiversity.

Ulrich Brdker, Apicon, Germany

SOUTH AFRICA

The Beekeeping for Poverty Relief Programme (BPRP) of the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) has been awarded one of five top Platinum Awards for community development by the Impumelelo Innovations Awards Trust. The Trust is dedicated to the recognition and promotion of public sector projects and public-private partnerships that reduce poverty in South Africa. The Ford Foundation and SIDA (Swedish International Development Agency) fund the awards.

Starting in April 2001 the BPRP is a joint venture between the ARC-PPRI (Plant Protection Research Institute) and the Departments of Science and Technology, and Social Development and Agriculture. The programme has achieved considerable success due largely to the interest and commitment demonstrated by those involved, including government officials and private organisations. The programme assists poor communities to be entrepreneurial within the honeybee industry.

With financial support from the Government Poverty Relief Funds the BPRP introduced beekeeping to over 500 people in its first year. Our goal is not merely to expand current projects, but also to promote beekeeping in communities in all provinces in the country. It is our conviction that once developmental beekeeping becomes established in the rural communities, it will be difficult to cope with the flood of requests for this programme.

Elize Lundall-Magnuson, ARC, Pretoria

TANZANIA

Thank you very much for sending BfD Journal on a sponsorship basis. For the last couple of years we have been experiencing problems with bush fires, theft, absconding of colonies due to drought and possibly infections in colonies. Squirrels, mice and bumblebees have also been a nuisance. We started off with about 300 hives, but now have only 60 on our farm and a further 65 elsewhere. These are log hives. We decided to use local hives because we wanted something natural, and we are considering harvesting propolis.

In addition to the Apis species we also keep 20 colonies of stingless bees. Although these bees are sensitive and honey production is not great, their honey is very marketable because of its medicinal value. We sell all our honey locally.

Maria and Jasper Ijumba, Arusha

ZANZIBAR (TANZANIA)

Compared with a few years ago, women in Zanzibar are playing an active role in supporting family livelihoods. Many participate in seaweed farming, but because of a limited market it is becoming increasingly important to provide women with alternative income-generating activities. One such activity is beekeeping. Traditionally dominated by men who use fire to burn the colonies in honey harvesting, this has been the source of forest fires that have left several of Zanzibar's communities jobless. The planned project will train women to practise techniques that will protect the bees and improve honey production. In the project area the programme will work jointly with conservation of the mangrove ecosystems. Mangrove trees can supply sufficient pollen and nectar for bees. Further, the degraded mangrove areas will be replanted as a part of the project, providing in the future large areas to hang hives.

Source: Mangrove Action Project Late Friday News (103rd ed)