Beekeeping Within the Periphery of Conservation Zones and Protected Areas
Enhancing collaborative management activities with local communities in the Mount Cameroon Area is a primary objective of Global Hand Cameroon; to this end, we have been working alongside Mount Cameroon National Park in furthering discussions with community leaders and locals. Two of the main topics of discussion recently have been the increasing number of wild bush fires and the declining honeybee population. Both of these problems are attributed to the destructive techniques used in wild honey hunting. Some locals have acknowledged that the most frequently used method of harvesting honey in the wild is with fire, which can destroy more than 75% of the entire colony and very often leads to serious, uncontrolled bush fires. These fires can completely destroy the savannah vegetation, thus negatively affecting other micro- and macro-organisms that depend on this vegetation. In the end, the entire ecosystem is disrupted: habitat is destroyed, and deforestation reduces the carbon sink.
In an attempt to manage this situation, Mount Cameroon National Park and its partner, the Program for the Sustainable Management of Natural Resources (PSMNR), have established a training program for wild honey hunters to teach them modern beekeeping techniques which are far less destructive, and far more productive. After this training, participants have been given modern beehives, together with associated beekeeping equipment and materials, to start their own apiaries that can be easily accessed and managed without any of the negative effects caused by the older honey hunting methods.
After a series of follow-up exercises, it was realized that there was a need to create a cooperative that would bring all the beneficiaries together for idea sharing and to promote marketing and future training opportunities. This cooperative has now been formed, and Mr. Evambe Thompson, founder and CEO of Global Hand Cameroon, has been appointed to the post of board chairman due to his extensive experience and knowledge of modern beekeeping and organizational management.
In the course of managing the cooperative affairs, more hives will be delivered to some 40 beneficiaries of the Buea I, Buea II and West Coast clusters. So far, 200 hives and 80 swarm catcher boxes with other beekeeping equipment and material have been delivered to the selected beneficiaries who are equally cooperators of the Mount Cameroon Bee Farmers’ Cooperative with Board of Directors (MC-BEEFCOOP-BOD).
Ultimately, our goal is to ensure that every beneficiary sees beekeeping not only as a source of complementary income, but that they also understand the critical role they play in the environment and agriculture and other ecosystem services. Above all, we hope to see more locals transitioning away from the old, destructive methods of wild honey hunting and adopting the much more lucrative and environmentally friendly methods of modern beekeeping.
Mr. Evambe Thompson speaks during the distribution exercise
New beehives to be distributed
Beekeeper with a new beehive
