Beekeepers keep bush fires at bay!
Blog by Janet Lowore
Posted: 29 August 2023
Fire. Whilst used and valued by rural communities the world over – frequent, severe and out-of-control bush fires are hugely damaging for people, for property, for wildlife and the environment.
This year, 2023, has witnessed some of the horrific impacts of fire in the Mediterranean, in Canada and USA, made worse undoubtedly by climate change. Yet there is a story about fire and people which has largely gone unnoticed. Beekeepers hate fire! In many communities in sub-Saharan Africa beekeepers are un-acknowledged leaders and activists in the fight against bush fire.
This is in contrast to the popular narrative that honey collectors cause fires. Not so! I recall talking to representatives at the Forestry Commission in Ghana who mentioned meeting foresters from Tanzania. The Tanzanians had told them that forest fires were less of a problem in Tanzania, compared to Ghana, “because the forests are full of beehives, and the beekeepers work hard to prevent fire”.
Bush fire in Afram plains, Ghana. If the forest canopy is thinned by tree felling for charcoal making, this leads to greater grass growth, which exacerbates the spread and ferocity of fire. Beekeeping provides an alternative forest-industry to charcoal making.
This story is unfolding also in Zimbabwe where our colleague and partner, Robert Mtisi, has been engaging with his local beekeeping communities, to build fire breaks around their apiaries and in the forest. He and his team are delivering fire awareness programmes, educating people living in and close to forest areas to use beekeeping as a tool to reduce forest fires. A ‘Training of Beekeepers on Fire Awareness and Protection’ will be conducted later this month. Also in Zimbabwe, commercial timber companies are encouraging people to keep bees in and around their timber plantations because they know beekeepers to be “custodians of their environment” (Global Press 2022).
There are three main reasons why beekeepers hate bush fires:
Firstly, beekeepers often site their hives in forests and out-of-control forest fires can burn the hives and bees.
The second reason is the flowers. Trees in the semi-dry forests in Africa tend to flower at the hottest time of year, before the rains, and this coincides with the height of the fire season, and forest fires can actually scorch the flowers, reducing nectar flow. This was noted by Clauss (1992) who recorded that Zambian beekeepers were worried about the impact of late fires between August and October when trees and flowers of key nectar species are particularly vulnerable to scorching.
The third reason is that hot forest fires kill tree seedlings and saplings and damage the potential of the forest to regenerate by natural means. And beekeepers know that ‘no trees mean no bees’.
It is hard to eliminate fire altogether, firebreaks prevent the spread when they do occur.
Fire break created by Robert Mtisi and local beekeepers in Rusape.
It is hard to eliminate all fire, and many tree species have some level of fire tolerance when they reach a certain size. The key is to manage fire towards achieving less frequent fires, less burned area in total and minimizing fire outbreaks at the height of the dry season.
This relationship between beekeeping and fire management has been recognized for a long time as evidenced by this comment by the beekeeper F. Smith in 1966, “Finally, it is important for the forester to realize, in his concern to protect the forest from fire, that he has a valuable ally in the beekeeper” (Smith 1966).
It is time that beekeepers are better recognised as champion environmentalists and that the more beekeepers there are, the safer our forests will be.
