Biodiversity support

Beekeepers recognise that a healthy environment underpins honey production, and with the right support they step-forward and become active environmental champions.

Bees need pollen and nectar to thrive, so we enable beekeepers to plant trees, restore degraded habitat, and teach them how to protect forests from fire. Pesticides kill bees, so we work with beekeeping communities to find alternative solutions. If conditions are good for bees, they are good for everything else too!

Fire is devastating for beekeepers and in many communities in sub-Saharan Africa, beekeepers are un-acknowledged leaders and activists in the fight against bushfire.

Zimbabwe

In Zimbabwe, our partners Working for Bees have been engaging with local beekeeping communities, to build fire breaks around their apiaries and in the forest. The team are delivering fire awareness programmes, and are educating people living in and close to forest areas to use beekeeping as a tool to reduce forest fires. In 2024, 60 women were trained in fire management, and 12,000 square meters of fireguards were created to protect apiaries and forest sites.

Ghana

Our team at Bees for Development Ghana have put together a Bushfire Awareness poster to educate communities on how to prevent bushfires. We believe that with this preventative approach, there will be a reduction in bushfires in the coming years – saving bees, beekeepers, hives, farms, and trees as a result. In 2024, 300 posters were distributed to 16 communities in Ghana.

Ethiopia

Honey production is a critical lifeline for Ethiopia’s subsistence farmers, yet they are grappling with a modern catastrophe: the widespread loss of bees due to pesticide use. Normal farmer practice involves 10 applications of pesticide on grass pea, a plant which is very attractive to honey bees.

For our 2024 Big Give Christmas Challenge, we fundraised to support our Farmer Field School in Amhara, Northern Ethiopia which shows farmers that there is a better alternative – for themselves, for the wider environment and for all pollinators including bees.

We also featured this important work in our BBC Radio 4 Charity Appeal which was presented by our Patron, Monty Don.

In 2024, 117 farmers (12 female) learned about Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and we reduced pesticide usage by over 50% in the four major crop types in our IPM trial.

“I was causing harm to my bees by applying pesticides on my vegetables. I am to blame. But what can I do? This is the modern way. After I joined Farmer Field School I learned alternative practices to reduce the pesticides use and its negative impact on bee colonies and in the environment at large.”

– Molla Adugna, Fogera, Ethiopia

Uganda

In Uganda, over 2,000 radio listeners were reached across the Kigezi sub region through infomercials on radio Muhabura. The infomercials focused on increasing understanding of the importance of timing when applying pesticides – to avoid spraying during flowering periods and foraging hours and protect bee populations. The infomercials also covered the role bees play in biodiversity, proper pesticide application methods, health and environmental risks of misuse and a call to listeners to protect bees.

Beekeepers around the world are combatting the effects of climate change by planting trees to increase shade in apiaries, restoring local flora and protecting natural habitats to provide bee forage.

Trees planted by Bees for Development partners in 2024:

• Ghana: 3,550 trees planted in 14 communities
• Ethiopia: 20,700 indigenous seedlings on 2.07 hectares of degraded land
• Zimbabwe: 3,000 seedlings planted — 2,000 in disturbed areas and 1,000 in living fireguards.

UK

In an era of climate change and increasing habitat loss, it’s becoming harder for bees to find suitable nesting sites and enough of the forage they need to feed their offspring.

In 2024, the Bees of Monmouthshire Recording Project conducted 75 visits to 38 different sites across Monmouthshire. Visiting different habitats including ex-industrial brownfield sites, heathland in the mountain valleys, wildflower-rich hay meadows, and sandy riverbanks, the project team amassed over 900 records in 2024 and identified 122 different bee species!

On top of the fieldwork, the project is also inspiring others to take up recording and learn more about their local bee diversity. Community outreach is very important and the Bees of Monmouthshire Recording Project ran an ID workshop, gave 3 talks to local community groups, which were attended by 92 people, and lead over 71 different people on bee walks around Monmouthshire.

Read some articles from our blog on how we support biodiversity through beekeeping.