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NEW ZEALAND BEEKEEPER, DECEMBER 2016
SOLOMON ISLANDS COMMUNITY PROJECT INTERNATIONAL BEEKEEPING NEWS Abridged from report provided by World Vision
Ian is a 27-year-old teacher in the village of Bethel, in East Malaita, where beekeeping has changed the course of a community. As a father of three, Ian said life in the village was challenging, and the standard of living was low, with poor road access, and limited ways to earn money.
East Malaita is one of Solomon Islands’most vulnerable areas, with over 80 per cent of people there depending on fishing and subsistence agriculture for their livelihood. This exposes them to threats in the form of commodity price fluctuations, natural disasters, and the impacts of climate change. World Vision New Zealand partnered with the East Malaita community in 2014, and has an economic development programme in place, which sets up producing groups that save money, and invest back into local businesses. “People depended entirely on local food crops from their garden,” Ian said. “World Vision brought two honey bee boxes to my community, and one of them is almost ready for harvesting.” He said beekeeping was slowly growing as a viable business in East Malaita. “The first eight bottles we harvested in 2015, we shared only for the community members,” he said. “Now we are looking forward for a second harvest of the same beehive. We are going to sell honey to support our saving groups.” Ian said the community had high hopes for further expansion, making it a key part of the local economy. “Our plan is to increase the number of honey beehives and boxes amongst community members so that they will have ownership of it and manage it themselves,” said Ian. But the small beekeeping industry still faced obstacles, he said. “The challenges we have faced with this honey bee project is we cannot access any proper training that will teach us how to keep and manage honey bees and increase the numbers of beehives.” In addition to training resources for local people, the presence of the Asian bee also threatened honey production, according to a recent Activity Progress Report about the success of the programme. The Asian bee’s
parasitic nature has led to low or slow honey production, and the community does not yet have the technical capabilities to eliminate it. The report said the community’s understanding of how to manage the hives, and to do it in collaboration with others, was only in its beginning phases. “As a result, the beehives are not yet managed to their full potential,” the report said. “This will be prioritised by the team in Year 3, particularly with hands-on mentoring and coaching.” Once the expansion is complete, the honey producers will work on the harvesting and selling of their products. “There are 13 honey hives in place across eight communities, with training provided by the Dala Honey Bee Farmers Association,” said the report. “The team is continuing to increase the number of honey hives across these communities, with supporting farmers in the management of these hives a key focus for Year 3, in addition to harvesting, marketing, and selling of honey products.”
[Editor’s note: if you are interested in supporting this community project, go to https://www. worldvision.org.nz/ways-to-give/smiles/smiles- catalogue-fy17/1713-a-beehive]
Photos provided courtesy of World Vision.
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