Inside Information

This issue of BeesforDevelopment Journal especially features beekeeping projects supported by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, (DANIDA). These projects have been run in co-operation between the Danish Beekeepers' Association (DBF) and local NGOs.

The Gambia - see page 4 - the DBF project ran between 1992 and 1994, and from 1996 to1998, in co-operation with Sifoe Kafoo Farm and Gambia Co-operative Beekeepers.

Tanzania In the Arusha area, there was co-operation with local beekeepers' associations and Njiro Wildlife Research Centre from 1994-1999.

Dominica 1995-1997 in co-operation with Carib Territory Women Beekeepers' Association. Guinea Bissau 1996-1998 in co-operation with TOTOKAN. India 1997-2006 in co-operation with Palni Hills Conservation Council and Keystone 2002-2004.

Vietnam 2004-2005 in co-operation with Vietnam Beekeepers' Association and Vietnam Bee Research and Development Centre.

Other projects have been in Nicaragua 2003-2006 with the Danish NGO Nepenthes in co-operation with Fundacion del Rio (see page 7), and in Cape Verde 2000-2003 with EDBI and Beesfor Development, in co-operation with the Ministry of Agriculture and Amigos da Natureza.

These projects are unfortunately only like drops in the ocean. FAO and other organisations working with poverty elimination should be doing so on a greater scale to support beekeeping training and increasing knowledge of the importance of bee pollination for improving crop yields. The development of sustainable forms of beekeeping is one of the cheapest and most secure ways to improve living conditions in many rural areas of the world.

Ole Hertz Social anthropologist and beekeeper, Bornholm, Denmark