Dear friends

Several common threads run through this edition of Bees for Development Journal. News of the continuing damage caused by human's spread of bee parasites and predators comes from Zimbabwe, where Varroa, the parasitic mite of honeybees, has arrived and is causing havoc for beekeepers. In Pakistan too, the widespread loss of bees due to Varroa is now reported (page 12).

In Nepal (page 6), Tanzania (page 12) and Zimbabwe (page 13), there have been meetings of beekeeping industry stakeholders, expressing the same concern in each country, that beekeepers need a stronger voice and better institutional support. Beekeeping is a small-scale activity, but it is very widely spread. It is often the poorest of the poor, living in the Earth's remote and isolated places, who produce honey as their only cash crop. This means that the beekeeping sector can be difficult to service, and these remote people are the last to benefit from resources such as training, credit and access to markets. Beekeepers can help themselves by forming strong, functional groups, and it is very good to see these projects (ICIMOD in Nepal, Heifer International in Tanzania and ITDG in Zimbabwe) taking the initiative to help beekeepers get organised and lobby on behalf of their industry.

Zooming in features Slovakia where, as in all other European countries, the number of beekeepers is declining. In western countries, the high labour costs associated with beekeeping continue to increase as new pests and diseases of bees arrive, making small-scale beekeeping less viable in these countries where labour costs are high.

This opens the market doors to beekeepers in poorer countries - as long as they are well informed, and can be mobilised to take advantage of the situation.