News

CAMEROON

I am Terence, a beekeeper in Cameroon. Our region is endowed with white honey and it is very famous and in high demand. This honey is produced when bees visit and collect nectar and pollen from Schefflera abyssinica and Nuxia congesta. I am trying to study this relationship to prove that bees visiting these plants produce white honey. If anybody can help me attend a course in beekeeping and carry out this research I will be grateful.

Contact Terence via Bees for Development

NEPAL

Apitherapy training

The Himalayan Apitherapy Centre, Kathmandu, organised and conducted successfully a five day training course in July 2003 for nine people from different academic backgrounds. The participants were a medical doctor, bee scientist, beekeepers and patients who were deeply interested in the scientific application of bee products. These people had been harassed by the treatment of western conventional medicines at hospital and nursing homes. The course emphasised the treatment of shoulder pain, lower back pain, knee pain, sciatica, ache, splitting and shooting pain, back calf pain, sore foot and rheumatism. The main resource person was Dr Ratna Thapa, Department of Biological Science, Mae Fae Luang University, Thailand. The Royal Thai Ambassador Mrs Phenchome Incharoensak awarded certificates to successful candidates. At the same time two books Beekeeping: income generation for living, and Apitherapy, written by Dr Ratna Thapa in Nepali language were also released.

Madhusudan Man Singh, RECAST, Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur

NIGERIA

In defence of the killer bee

Bees found in tropical Africa are notorious for their defensiveness. They are held in such dread that the tag ‘killerbee' seems to have stuck to them. True as this may to some extent be, the bees appear to be shedding their unnecessary aggression. Consequently, they can now be kept relatively close to humans, without undue fear and unnecessary panic. ‘Killer-bees' are now so friendly that, if you so choose, you can keep them on the balcony of your living room, in your backyard, on the tree right in front of your house, or just behind your office window. There are important conditions: appropriate management by the beekeeper, and the knowledge, co-operation and friendly disposition of your neighbours. The ‘killer-bee' is getting along with the rest of humanity, and the ecological balance is the happier for it.

Bola Adepoju

Information sought

Alahji Idris Zaria, a bee-keeping extensionist based in Zaria, Nigeria would be happy if you could help with his search for C F Jerssen, one of the first British beekeepers to visit Nigeria in the early 1960s. He needs information to include in the history of the Beekeeping Extension Resource Centre.

Contact Alahji via Bees for Development

TANZANIA

Update

I was assigned to Moyowosi and Kigosi Game Reserves in Kigoma Region working out the important beekeeping issues that have to be considered during the preparation of a General Management Plan for the two Reserves. Beekeepers are the major stakeholders in protected areas and expert analysis was needed to bring up issues for discussion in a stakeholders’ workshop, and to eventually include them in the Management Plan. This work was financed by Kagera Kigoma Game Reserves Rehabilitation Project, which is funded by the EU.

In 2002 there was a good crop of honey for Tabora Beekeepers’ Co-operative, but in 2003 the beekeepers did not get such a good harvest.

Liana Hassan, BfD's Correspondent in Tanzania

Development of beekeeping

It is estimated that Tanzania is capable of supporting up to 9.2 million productive honeybee colonies in forests, woodlands and farm areas. The potential production from these colonies is estimated to reach 138 billion Tanzania shillings* every year. At present, Tanzania produces annually about 4,860 tonnes of honey worth 4.9 billion TzS, and about 324 tonnes of beeswax worth 648 million TzS. This is only 3.5% of the potential of the beekeeping industry.

The National Beekeeping Programme (NBKP) is an instrument designed to put the Government's 1998 Beekeeping Policy into practice. The main objectives of the NBKP are:

1. The sustainable supply of beekeeping products and services to meet needs at local, national and global levels;

2. Enhanced national capacity to manage and develop the beekeeping sector in a collaborative manner;

3. To enable a legal and regulatory framework for the sector;

4. Increased economic contribution, employment and foreign exchange earnings through sustainable beekeeping-based industry development and trade of bee products.

References

The Notional Beekeeping Policy (1998) Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, Tanzania

The National Beekeeping Programme (2001) Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, Tanzania

*Tanzania shillings 1000 = US$1

Gerald Jones Kamwenda, Forestry & Beekeeping Division, Dar es Salaam