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Bees for Development – The International Specialist Beekeeping Organisation
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Bees for Development Trust is the working title of The Troy Trust, Registered Charity 1078803. Registered Address: 1 Agincourt Street, Monmouth, NP25 3DZ, UK. © Bees for Development. All Rights Reserved
Nature Based Beekeeping
What is NBB?
Nature Based Beekeeping
Nature Based Beekeeping is an approach to keeping bees, that combines knowledge of honey bee ecology with local techniques, to combat poverty and hunger. It enables millions of farmers in developing countries to increase their quality of life.
Nature Based Beekeeping is currently practiced in over 100 countries, and in Africa is the approach which delivers the highest volumes of surplus honey. Honey bees are part of nature and thrive everywhere where there are flowering plants and they readily produce surplus honey. For people to harvest this natural bounty from nature they need a low-cost beehive, and knowledge of beekeeping.
The Nature Based Beekeeping approach depends on keeping the cost of beehives as low as possible. Why low-cost? Because with low-cost hives the barrier to becoming a beekeeper is removed, making beekeeping accessible to more people. This means more people can keep more bees.
How does NBB work?
The Nature Based Beekeeping approach is simple, but it does require a very good understanding of the local context and requires investment in skills, knowledge and mentoring between practitioners – and pays close attention to the economics of the beekeeping system and access to markets. It is not an equipment-centric approach. Communities tap into the potential of their natural resources – namely honey bees, floral resources and hive-making materials, rather than relying on donated equipment.
There are two main benchmarks for a successful Nature Based Beekeeping project:
Case Study
Nature Based Beekeeping in practice
Patrick Ayebazibwe
"There are so many donated hives in Uganda – but they have not helped people. Too many hives are left to rot and money, donated by well-meaning donors, is wasted."
Who can benefit? Everyone
Nature-based beekeeping approach depends on low-cost, own-made beehives and wise use of natural resources including bees, flowers, forests and hive-making materials.
Low-cost, own-made beehives remove the ‘beehive barrier’ and unlock the potential of nature’s surplus honey. Low-cost hives = more bees can be kept by more beekeepers. Everyone can benefit.
Greater honey harvests.
Significant beeswax yields
Accessible to everyone regardless of economic status. Less donor dependency.
Suitable for forest beekeeping, so supporting forest conservation.
Greater income earned. Community support for habitat conservation. Climate change mitigation through protected forests for bees. Greater and better crop yields as a result of pollination. Accessible to the poorest of the poor. Healthy bees.
Increased household resilience.
Stronger communities and healthier natural environment.
What benefit does it bring?
There are numerous tangible outcomes from Nature Based Beekeeping. The greatest benefit is that the opportunity to ‘harvest money from nature’ is accessible to many people in difficult circumstances. In addition to honey which beekeepers can readily sell, beeswax is also harvested. NBB creates a strong synergy between habitat conservation and forest maintenance and supports climate change mitigation. NBB is adaptable to differing contexts and is accessible to people in remote areas and those who have no access to conventional beekeeping supplies and equipment. NBB builds on local expertise and knowledge and empowers people to connect with their local traditions and cultures.
Reality Check
Evidence Base
The strongest evidence for the success and sustainability of NBB is the total volume of honey harvested and sold and the number of people benefitting. The regions in Africa which produce the largest surpluses of honey, sufficient to support a thriving honey export business, are also those regions where NBB is practised most widely, and include north-west Zambia, south-west Ethiopia and northern Tanzania. By contrast conventional beehive donation projects, whilst delivering some benefits for some people, rarely transform apiculture to such an extent as to underpin significant beeswax and honey trade.
Nature Based Beekeeping FAQs
Nature Based Beekeeping is an approach to using natural resources – notably bees, flowers and hive-making materials to making a living in a way that is profitable, sustainable and accessible for people with very limited financial resources. The approach empowers beekeepers to be self-sufficient with regard to accessing hives e.g. by making their own. This is an essential attribute which makes it possible for poor people to do beekeeping ‘at scale’.
Conventional beehive donation projects place too much emphasis on donated equipment in the belief that giving someone a so-called ‘modern hive’ can change people’s lives. This belief is misplaced and thousands of donated hives end up empty and wasted. The reasons are many and include:
Development programmes, governments and NGOs whose objective is to help people work their way out of poverty by building stronger and more resilient livelihoods, whilst also maintaining the environment. For any given budget, NBB can reach more people and change more lives than conventional beehive donation projects.
Value for money advantages of Nature Based Beekeeping