In Issue 80

Dear friends

Here at Bees for Development people ask often for examples of good beekeeping projects. In this edition, we bring news of two projects - very different in scope and scale, that are achieving their original objectives. The first example is a relatively small, grass-roots project in Nigeria. Polly Eaton was working in the area and perceived that beekeeping could help local young people. A beekeeper back home in London, Polly realised that keeping bees in tropical Africa is a different proposition from doing it in the UK. She did the best thing - to make contact with a local beekeeper and provide training using approaches that have already been found to work well in the area. As you can read on page 4, the trainees are getting on well.

The second example is a much larger scale project from Turkey (pages 5-7). A few years ago, an expert beekeeper realised that one of Turkey's remote valleys was home to Apis mellifera caucasica honeybees that because of geographical isolation, had not become mixed with other races of bees. People living in this valley were remote, isolated by snow for much of the year, and financially poor. A project was conceived to train people in queen rearing and in organic honey production, and fortunately found financial support from a philanthropic foundation The project began in 1998, and by today, people living in the valley have had their income raised significantly, young people are no longer leaving to seek jobs elsewhere, and everyone has incentive to maintain the valley's excellent natural environment. At the same time, good supplies of desirable Apis mellifera caucasica queens are readily available to beekeepers throughout Turkey. Nowadays in Europe, it is very hard to find, and to protect, stocks of original races of bees. it will be a wonderful thing if these pure stocks of Apis mellifera caucasica honeybees can be maintained for the future.

Because bees pollinate plants and contribute to biodiversity maintenance, any intervention to encourage beekeeping can be only beneficial for the environment. The possibility to harvest products like honey and beeswax, or to rear queen bees for onward sale, also enables people to work their way out of poverty. Such a significant outcome, just by capitalising on the bees' industrious work of collecting nectar and pollen from flowers.

Nicola Bradbear, Director Bees for Development

Bees for Development

1 Agincourt Street, Monmouth NP25 3DZ, UK Tel: +44 (0)1600 714848 info@beesfordevelopment.org www.beesfordevelopment.org