News

ARGENTINA

Argentina will promote sustainable development in Norte Grande region by making select industry clusters more competitive with support from a 25 year, US$16 million loan from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The Region’s main activities are the production of sugar, grains, olives, metallic minerals, tea, oleaginous crops, wood, paper, fruits, honey and wines.

Source: www.iadb.org/news

BULGARIA

The Bulgarian Bee Union informs us that Bulgaria produces 8,000-11,000 tonnes of honey each year. The annual consumption of honey per person is 0.4-0.5 kg (average consumption for Europe is 1.5-2.0 kg per year). Between 5,000-8,000 tonnes are sold within Bulgaria and 3,000-6,000 tonnes are exported. Every year in Europe 140,000- 150,000 tonnes of honey are traded and therefore Bulgaria accounts for only 1% of the European honey trade. The major trade partner for Bulgaria is Germany, followed by France, Italy and Spain. The Union aims to popularise honey consumption in Bulgaria because it is proven that the price on the local, Bulgarian market is better than the export price.

Agency Focus

www. international.ibox.bg/news

CAMEROON

BERUDEP Training

Farmers working with the Belo Rural Development Project (BERUDEP) have been benefitting from reading BfD Journal and books in their three branch offices in Boyo Division. They have received also a Resource

Box sponsored by BFD Trust to help with their training work. The Living Earth Foundation, Cameroon and an Italian NGO, AQA, recently sponsored BERUDEP’s training activities in two provinces of Cameroon. The practical course showed people how to make a top-bar hive, manage their apiary and how to harvest honey and wax. One of the participants said her interest in becoming a bee farmer started because her child had recently been treated successfully with honey.

Ngwainmbi Simon Chia, BERUDEP Director

Forest resources

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Jengi Southeast Forest Programme recommends that Baka pygmies be given more access to forest resources and space within national parks. Baka pygmies make up 40% of the population living around the three national parks: Boumba Bek, Nki and Lobeke, in south-east Cameroon. They are hunters, gatherers and semi-nomadic in their lifestyle. The results of the study will provide a basis for the negotiation of access rights for Bakas within protected areas.

Baka Pygmies hunt, live and have their sacred sites inside the forest. This dependence on the forest makes them crucial to conservation efforts and prompted this recommendation. They harvest honey, mangos, wild yams, medicinal plants and many other non-timber forest products (NTFPs). Honey is used during two important traditional dances called Mboma, performed during funerals, and Moomo, performed to chase away evil spirits.

A WWF research team concluded that Baka pygmies do not recognise any limit in their quest for forest resources and performance of their traditional rituals. They carry out activities both in and around the parks. They see both as continuity and disregard the boundaries erected by the minds of men. "It is important to give them unfettered access to harvest NTFPs, (especially medicinal plants) and to visit sacred sites’, recommends the study.

According to Dr Louis Defo, WWF advisor, the studies will provide necessary information for the integration of these indigenous forest people in natural resource management. “Given WWE's philosophy of participatory management, it is fundamental to address the needs of local communities in order to win their support for conservation work”, he said.

For John Nelson of Forest Peoples Programme there is a big difference compared with when he first arrived in 2001. "We are feeling very optimistic and we are going to be increasingly collaborating with WWF and its partners to work on a common agenda to secure indigenous peoples rights”, he said. "People should remember that when they talk about wildernesses in Africa, a lot of these places are actually populated by people”.

But Podo Mois, a Baka from Massia, still in Boumba-Bek North eid not enthuse. "The forest is our home. We have our honey, wild yams and mangos to harvest. Once we are in the forest we feel very good, so there is no need to move out”.

Source: Peque Manga, www.postnewsline.com

INDIA

Vanishing bees bring down crop yields

During the last five years there has been a dramatic fall in Kutch District, not just in wild honey collection, but also the yields of some exotic and indigenous crops. Numbers of honey bee colonies, vital for the pollination process, have diminished in this semi-arid region of Gujarat State.

A study conducted by the Central Beekeeping Research & Training Institute (CBRTI), found that air pollution and rampant felling of a wild thorny bush Prosopsis juliflora, known locally as gando bawal (mad weed) has caused the disappearance of haney bees from many areas of Kutch District.

“The number of little honey bee colonies one square kilometre has fallen to 20-25 from the earlier 60-70 colonies in and around the Banni grasslands. The first effect has been seen by the local honey hunters (Koli community) who used to harvest about 300 tonnes of wild honey annually. This yield fell to just 50 tonnes a year", said A S Soman who has been researching the bees for the last 10 years. The wild honey collected by the Koli community used to be sold to the Gujarat State Forest Development Corporation. "A kilogram of honey fetches about INR150 (€2.3; US$3.5) but during the previous two years we have not been able to collect a single drop of honey from Kutch”, said an official.

"Air pollution caused by smoke emission during the charcoal making process from Prosopsis juliflora has not just reduced the yield of wild honey but has also affected production of crops including date palms, lemons, papayas and Kesar mangos by as much as 50% in some areas”, Soman said.

In 2004, the Gujarat Government permitted the felling of Prosopsis juliffora (which usually grows to the size of a tree), for making charcoal. This has provided employment for 30,000 people. However, last month the state government banned further felling on ecological grounds. The worst affected area is the 2,500km2 of Banni Region grassland where the Prosopsis juliflora has been wiped out.

Source: Avinash Nair Himanshu Darji, TNN

www economictimes.indiatimes. com

IRAQ

It is well known that poverty occurs more in villages and rural places than in cities because of the lack of jobs, and also in areas that are facing unstable political conditions such as Afghanistan, the Balkans, Iraq, Somalia and other African countries.

The most sustainable way for income generation is agriculture, where poor people can use local resources for cultivating crops and keeping animals. Beekeeping is one of the most effective micro-enterprise projects, providing a steady income with sustainable use of local resources.

Many international NGOs have tried to help people in Iraq to alleviate poverty using beekeeping. Over the last two years the Bee Research Unit of the National Center for Agricultural Research and Extension (NCARE) Jordan, has been training 51 beekeepers and Staff of the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture.

Most recently a training course was conducted in co-operation with FAO and UNIDO, and took place in July in Amman and Irbid. From the survey of the status of the beekeeping sector in Iraq, and from the needs assessments of the trainees, we believe that the Iraqi beekeeping sector requires much support and capacity building, particularly in queen rearing, selection and breeding, and identification of honey bee diseases and viruses.

Dr Nizar Haddad, Director, Bee Research Unit, NCARE, Jordan