A study in Kenya headed by Lucy King of Save the Elephants looked at hives which are positioned around a field of crops. “Beehive fences” have been successful in places where elephants and humans co-exist. As Charlotte Lietaer noted in her research article, “ when people are aware about the valuable contribution of bees to the life of humans… they will respect bees and try to protect them, their habitat and forage area as much as possible.”īees can even be used to mitigate human-wildlife conflict. When you add that honey money to pollination services, you have an industry with a solid incentive to protect the habitats required by bees. “I’m not trying to romanticise it – it’s just fact.” These are places where a profitable honey industry could flourish through proper training and access to market. “There are virgin, organic, lush territories,” enthuses Keith Smith of non-profit Bee Parks Trust. “Some 80% of indigenous flowering plants in Africa benefit from honey bee pollination, and approximately one-third of all food produced is the result of commercial honey bee pollination,” says Mike Allsopp, a honey bee specialist at South Africa’s Agricultural Research Council.įree of harsh winters, many African countries have perfect conditions for commercial bee farming. Our need for bees is practical: bees and other pollinators support the food chain. Why bees could be the secret to superhuman intelligence.Meet the ‘Brave Ones’: The women saving Africa’s wildlife.What would happen if bees went extinct?.She is not alone in the belief that bee farming could be a successful conservation industry in sub-Saharan Africa – yet she’s one of the few exploring its full potential. When beekeeping is done properly, Cartland explains, “you end up restoring the environment”. This results in richer honey harvests, providing a financial incentive for maintaining an ecosystem. More trees mean more forage, or food, for the bees. She aims to use her business to reforest land that has been degraded by pastoralism. There’s high demand for honey in Kenya, where prices are similar to those in Europe and beekeepers can make good money.īut Cartland’s ambitions are not only profit-based. She tells me that local communities have been keen to work with her: many young people are looking for alternatives to livestock farming. In the arid north of Kenya, Trinnie Cartland is preparing to scale up her organic acacia honey business.
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