Bees Enlisted to Fight Deforestation

Forests in Hurungwe and other parts of Zimbabwe are under attack from illegal logging gangs and charcoal extraction. But the battle against deforestation has a helpful ally: the bee. Though it could soon be facing a fight of its own, some Hurungwe folks are now increasingly enlisting it for a good cause.

Temba Chiworeka plans to increase his forest area to enable him to expand his bee-keeping venture by adding more beehives this season.

"The income I'm getting from the sustainable harvesting of honey is transforming my apiculture enterprise, and my family's livelihood," the Zimbabwean smallholder farmer, whose community is sustainably managing its forests, said.

There are 255 farmers participating in the commercial bee keeping initiative and are individually managing 992 Kenya top bar hives as part of a strategy to preserve more than 750 hectares of miombo forest and eucalyptus woodlots in the area.

"It's good for us that we can benefit from these forests. For years, we have witnessed increased deforestation as a result of massive fuel wood collection for tobacco curing and other commercial uses, and agricultural expansion," said Chiworeka, who grows maize mainly to feed his family, and tobacco for sale.

The 46-year-old smallholder farmer is now chairperson of the Dzimaihwe Community-Based Organisation (CBO). The CBO is a successful example of sustainable forest management, and one of eight institutions established under the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Zimbabwe's Sustainable Forest Management project, aimed at reducing deforestation through forest related incentives.

Chiworeka boasts of one of the best apiaries with eucalyptus woodlots and eight hectares of indigenous forests providing bee forage.

Under the pilot project which started in 2014, the Ward 13 residents received training, timber for hive making, protective clothing, smokers and hive accessory tools through project partner, Zim Apiculture Trust (ZAT).

As part of the initiative, ZAT linked bee-keepers to markets that are offering better prizes than the middle man who were offering an average of $1 per kg of comb honey

The bee-keeping activities are providing an important sustainable and alternative source of income for the farmers in the district. In 2017 bee keepers harvested 45 00kg of comb honey that earned about $10 000 sold at between $2,00 and $2,50 per kg of comb honey.

Bee-keeping has become a practical tool for raising people's awareness on community-based natural forest management, and for stimulating environmental stewardship for biodiversity conservation.