Bees for Batwa

Building on the success of the past three years working with the Batwa people of Southwest Uganda, this August saw the start of a second phase of work where we will be expanding and sharing the benefits of beekeeping to new and eager-to-learn communities.

For thousands of years, the Batwa people hunted honey in the dense forests covering the volcanic slopes in the region. As a people, they understand the importance and value of bees. Due to the protection of the forest and its inhabitants, the Mountain Gorillas, the Batwa have been denied access to their ancestral lands and have lived since at the margins of communities outside the forest, where hunting honey is not possible. Beekeeping, as a consequence, has become an attractive and worthwhile option for earning money.

Providing valuable beekeeping skills and know-how to the Batwa since 2020, our partner TUNADO, has to date worked with 72 Batwa and 40 non-Batwa. The results have been impressive, with beekeepers earning as much as £170 per year from honey and beeswax alone. This is not an insignificant contribution to raising them above the World Bank extreme poverty line was which is pegged at $2.15/day (£1.70/day).

Beekeeping has changed how the Batwa are viewed within their communities. The Batwa people have previously been referred to by locals as ‘unworthy’, but through beekeeping attitudes to them are slowly changing. One of the project participants, a lady in Kagezi Parish, is sought out when people are sick as she is able to supply them with honey. She says, “…now I am being respected in the community because if someone is sick, they come looking for me to provide honey which they use as medicine in the community.”

Bosco is a participant of the Bees for Batwa project in the Kisoro district of Uganda. He has been able to buy a breeding pig with the money earned from his honey sales. Beekeeping has helped him buy an asset that he has dreamed of for some time and will provide a meaningful way to diversify his income and increase his economic resilience and that of his family.

Project staff are busy laying the ground for the new work which will see 80 new participants benefit from beekeeping training with both honey bees and stingless bees – of which there are 10 species in the area. They will also be taught processing skills and encouraged to take advantage of the significant earning potential from the tourists that flock to the area to see the gorillas.

Accessing land to site their hives is a significant barrier to many would-be beekeepers. Competition for the extremely fertile, volcanic soil on the steep slopes is fierce, land values are high and access is keenly policed by its owners. The project will continue to break down barriers between Batwa and landowners by emphasising the pollination benefit of beekeeping for crops and the potential income they could also earn as beekeepers. We will also work with tea plantation owners to raise awareness of the impacts of pesticides on bee populations and encourage more bee-friendly practices.
The Batwa project is ambitious, but as we’ve already seen, the impacts are life-changing.