Bees for Development
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Bees for Development |
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Bees are some of nature's most fascinating creatures, they are also incredibly important. Their intimate dependency relationship with plants makes bees a crucial component of successful ecosystems the world over. As primary producers, plants are fundamental to life. Plants provide the basis of the food chain for all creatures as well as providing shelter, protection and nesting sites. People utilise plant based natural resources for food, fuel, shelter, useful materials and commercial gain. Plants maintain watersheds, prevent soil erosion and are a factor in climatic stability. Pollination is therefore essential for agriculture and environmental management and a variety of pollinators are required to maintain reproduction across a broad spectrum of flowering plant species. In their turn the pollinators require protection of the plants on which their life depends and the habitats within which these plants grow. The greatest threat to pollinators is unrestrained habitat destruction, degradation or pollution.
Beekeeping can play a role in the conservation of forests and natural systems. The flowers of forest trees are the primary food of honey bees in many parts of the tropics. For example miombo forests in east and central Africa support many hundreds and thousands of bee colonies and traditional beekeeping is widespread and successful throughout the miombo zone. Yet miombo woodlands are under threat from land conversion and the charcoal industry and deforestation is rampant. Beekeeping provides local communities with an economic incentive to protect the woodlands and, where they have the opportunity to do so, local people can be encouraged to engage in conservation projects.
Image©Primo Masotti maso101@libero.it
When bee farmers preserve or protect established forest they also preserve fragile soils from erosion and land slippage, they support natural watershed management and become a factor in the protection of forest biodiversity. Indigenous tree planting or agroforestry techniques designed to maximise a honey crop can also help to establish new forest areas or encourage the uptake of environmentally sensitive methods of multipurpose agroforestry or farming. Beekeeping projects often link beekeeping training with environmental training and tree planting.
Bees are under threat and need to be conserved. They are threatened by habitat destruction and killed by environmental pollution, pesticides in particular. In some parts of the world indigenous bee species are threatened by the importation of alien species which compete for food and dilute their genetic integrity.
North Western Bee Products is a successful honey trading business in Zambia, exporting honey to the UK. Every jar of honey sold makes a contribution to the beekeepers family, to the survival of their way of life and the preservation of the forest on which they depend. For forests to be preserved it is essential that local people benefit from them by obtaining economic harvests. Successful, non-destructive economic exploitation of an environment will lead to producers gaining a voice in the protection of their local natural resources and equally importantly, a say in the development of government policy which has to balance the needs of a range of sometimes conflicting land users.
List of Articles available on this topic (80):
Title | Author |
A chilling effect on beekeeping | Fischer, J. |
A Guide to the Singapore Science Centre Ecogarden | Kwok Kah Pao, P. |
A Himalayan Enclave in Transition: A Study of Change in the Western Mountains of Nepal | Shrestha, B.K. |
Abstract Proceedings: 11th Asian Apicultural Association Conference, ApiExpo & Workshop | Asian Apicultural Assocaition |
An assessment of elephant-compatible livelihoods: trials of beekeeping, chilli farming and the production of dung paper in Laikipia, Kenya | Graham, M.D. Wren, S. and Adams, W. M. |
An Introduction to Agroforestry | Ramachandran Nair, P.K. |
An Introduction to the vegetation of Yemen: ecological basis, floristic composition, human influence | Al-Hubaishi, A. & Muller-Hohenstein, K. |
Applied ecology of bumblebees | Bogatyrev, N. |
Assessing the Contribution of Organic Agriculture for Increasing Livelihood Security in Uganda | M Hauser, C Walaga |
Atlas of Earthcare: A Major New Illustrated Guide to Looking After our Planet | Litvinoff, M. |
Bee death in the USA: is the honey bee in danger? | Ritter, W. |
Bee diversity across a tropical tract - Honeybees & people in India | Roy, P. |
Beehives protect farms from elephants | Bee Craft |
Beekeeping and conserving biodiversity of honeybees | Lodesani, M. & Costa, C. |
Beekeeping and Social Forestry | Padamanabhan, P. |
Beekeeping as a sustainable use of the rainforest in Nicaragua | Hertz, O. |
Beekeeping in Greenland | Hertz, O. |
Beekeeping in Rural Development: Unexploited Beekeeping Potential in the Tropics: with particular reference to the Commonwealth | IBRA |
Beekeeping in the Amhara Region | Kebede, A., Ejigu, K., Aynalem, T., Jenberie, A |
Bees and Forest in the Tropics | Beetma, J. |
Biodiversity and the Ecosystem Approach in Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries: Proceedings | FAO |
Biological Diversity and Developing Countries: Issues and Options | Flint, M. |
Burkina Faso | Nombre, I.; Sawadogo, M.; Boussim, J. & Guinko, S. |
Center for International Forestry Research: Strategic Planning Thematic Papers: Issues Contributing to Program Development | CIFOR |
Chlorinated Pesticide Residues in Honey | Ogata, J. N., Bevenue, A |
Cities could save bees | Gray.L |
Conservation and Management of Tropical Rainforests: An Integrated Approach to Sustainability | Bruenig, E.F. |
Deforestation Rates in Tropical Forests and their Climatic Implications | Myers, N. |
Do Not Take Away our Future | Watanabe, H. |
Economic benefit of crop pollination by bees: a case of Kakamega small-holder farming in Western Kenya | Kasina, J.M., Mburu, J., Kraemer, M. and Holm-Mueller, K. |
Economic valuation of the vulnerability of world agriculture confronted with pollinator decline | Gallai, N., Salles, J., Settele, J. and Vaissiere, B.E. |
Elephants vs Farmers: Bee off with you | Bee Culture |
Flora Polinica de Mendoza | Wingenroth, M. |
Forest honey in Zambia | Bees for Development |
Guardian bees | Fritz Vollrath, Iain Douglas-Hamilton |
Honey for Life; honey production and conservation in Zambia | Musonda, E |
Honeybee Agrobiodiversity: A project in conservation of Apis Mellifera Syriaca in Jordan | Haddad, N; Fuchs, S |
How one hundred people spent the night under a bee tree | Bees for Development |
Improvingment and Strengthening of Forestry and Forest Products Research Institutions in the SADC Region: Report of the Second Regoinal Workshop 21-25 September, Gaborone | SADC Forestry Research |
Integrated Value Chain Development as a Tool for Poverty Alleviation in Rural Mountain Areas | Hoermann, B; Choudhary, D & D, Kollmair, M. |
Keeping Bees in Towns and Cities | Dixon, L. |
Loss of bees in Hungary | Bees for Development |
Low-cost homes for wild pollinators | Bogatyrev, N |
Manual de Apicultura para Ambientes Subtropicales: Una Propuesta de: \'La Red de Escuelas del Noroeste Argentina (NOA)\' | Dini, C. & Bedascarrasbure, E. |
Marketing Information Systems for Non-Timber Forest Products | Koppell, C. |
Mitochondrial DNA support for genetic reserves of Apis mellifera syriaca in Jordan | Haddad N., Meixner M.D., Fuchs S., Midadi H., Garney L., Sheppard W.S. |
More Silent Spring (letters in response to 'Silent Spring in Northern Europe'?) | Bees for Development |
National Conference on Tropical Bees and the Environment | Anita, M., Shubharani, R. & Sivaram, M. |
Natural Beekeeping: Organic Approaches to Modern Apiculture | Conrad, R. |
Natural History and Economic Botany of Nepal | Bhatt, D.D. |
Non-Timber Forest Products from the Tropical Forests of Africa: a Bibliography | van Adrichem, E. & van der Linde, H. |
Non-Wood Forest Products in Asia | Durst, P.B., Kashio, M. & Ultrich, W. |
Of plants, hives, conservation and computers | Harman, A. |
Pollinators in a Changing Landscape | Alton, S. |
Potential effects of GM crops on honey bee health | Malone, L.A. |
Practical Manual on Beekeeping | Gupta, JK; Sharma, HK; Thakur, RK. |
Queen of the Sun: What are the Bees Telling Us? | Siegel, T. & Betz, J. |
Rainforest Buffer Zones: Guidelines for Protected Area Managers | Sayer, J. |
Renewable Biological Systems for Alternative Sustainable Energy Production | Miyamoto, K. |
Resource assessment of non-wood forest products: experience and biometric principles | Wong,J L G; Thornber,K; Baker,N |
Restoration of Apis cerana japonica on the Goto Islands | Hishahi, F. |
Seed Catalogue for Beekeepers Conservationists and Gardeners | BIBBA |
Seeds for Beekeepers, Conservationists and Gardners | BIBBA |
Selecting indigenous trees for domestication in southern Africa | Maghembe, J et al (eds) |
Semi-desert plants | Ngwainmbi, S. |
Stingless bees in Costa Rica | Bees for Development |
Strength in diversity | Hughes, W. |
Sustainable bee-friendly beekeeping: part 1 | David Heaf |
Tanzania, Top-bar hives, Miombo Forestry Information Box | Anonymous |
The Thinking Beekeeper: A Guide to Natural Beekeeping in Top Bar Hives | Hemenway, Christy |
The \'domestic\' honey bee versus the wild pollinators | Hemmerie,J (translated by Pam Todd) |
Threats to honey bee biodiversity | Cuthbertson,A.G.S.; Marris,G.; Powell,M.E. |
Threats to Malaysia's bee trees - take action | Bees for Development |
Threats to Malaysia\'s bee trees | Bees for Development |
Threats to Malaysia\'s bee trees | Bees for Development |
Understanding Mountain Poverty in the Hindu Kush-Himalayas | Hunzai, K; Gerlitz, J-Y; Hoermann, B. |
Value of Insect Pollinators to Himalayan Agricultural Economies | Partap U., Partap T., Sharma H. K., Phartiyal, P., Marma P., Tamang N., Ken T., Munawar M |
Vanishing of the bees documentary - 30 minute version | |
Website for conservation of all honey bees | |
Workshop highlights importance of honeybee sector | Malone,T. |