Beekeeping protects forests and sweetens income for farmers in Mzimba, Malawi

Hello, our dear listeners. Welcome to your favorite program that covers issues pertaining to the environment and how we can help conserve it. As usual, you are with me, _______________.

In this program, we are going to discuss how members of Malangazi Natural Resources Management Cooperative in Malawi’s northern district of Mzimba are using beehives to protect their naturally regenerated forests from being destroyed by others who cut down trees wantonly, mainly for firewood and charcoal production. The cooperative has been fending off illegal activities in the regenerated forests since 2017, after receiving training organized by World Vision Malawi.

Their beekeeping venture has not only helped in protecting their forests, but has also improved their livelihoods, as they gain honey for nourishment and to sell for income. Additionally, the regenerated forest is helping to mitigate the impacts of climate changes and contributing to the regular flow of rivers. To learn more about the benefits communities get from using beehives to protect natural regenerated forests, we interviewed Prince Moyo, chairperson of the cooperative, Lizzie Banda, treasurer of the cooperative, and Ellen Moyo, secretary of the cooperative. We also spoke to Isaac Baloyi, an assistant forestry officer at the Mzimba district forestry office. He will mainly elaborate on what is natural regeneration.

Now it’s time to hear from our guests

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Mr. Moyo, I can see a thick forest here, which is a bit strange due to the rapid forest degradation and deforestation taking place in the district. Can you tell me more about the forest?

You are right. All this area here and beyond the hills there had no trees. This was because people of the surrounding villages were cutting down trees wantonly for either charcoal, firewood, or some were into shifting cultivation agriculture – a type of farming where trees on a large area are cut and, when dry, they are set on fire. The ashes are said to be good for production of millet.

But after some time we noticed changes in the weather patterns, rains became unpredictable, even the River Kaso was drying up just after the rainy season and we could not grow vegetables or other crops during winter.

You mean there were no trees here?

Very few trees and shrubs here and there, to the extent that all wildlife disappeared. People were now finding it difficult to even find firewood

So how did everything change to the extent that now we have this thick and dense forest?

We were called to a meeting by World Vision Malawi where we discussed issues of food security and how this can be achieved through irrigation farming. But we complained that we cannot do irrigation farming because our rivers were running dry and we always experience unpredictable rainfall patterns. That’s when we were introduced to ways on how we can regenerate natural forests to change the tide in rain patterns. This was in 2016.

So how did you get started with natural regeneration?

After we went back home, we sat down with our village headmen and together we designated areas where we will allow regeneration of natural trees – where no one will be allowed to cut trees, and if anyone was found going against this, our traditional leaders would take action.

That’s encouraging. What action would the village heads take in such a scenario?

(laughs) We made by-laws that were announced for community members to abide to. If one was caught cutting down trees in the designated areas, they pay a fine in the form of a goat. If they are caught again, they pay a fine of two goats. And fortunately for us, the community obliged.

Thank you Mr. Moyo. For how may years have you been leaving the forest without disturbances from the surrounding population.

We began in 2016. No one would go into the forest to cut trees or even fetch firewood. The forests were left to themselves and, by and by, we started noticing some changes. Trees grew, shrubs started forming thick thickets, and some game started returning, especially hares.

Now we have nine forests that have come up due to our endeavours, with the help of World Vision Malawi. This Kapirinkunga forest has nine hectares that are densely populated with natural trees.

Mr. Moyo, I can also see that you are now keeping beehives in the forests. How do you come to start beekeeping?

After three years, in 2020 to be precise, after noting that despite our efforts in using by-laws to punish those who would be found cutting down trees, people were now sneaking into it and cutting down trees at night to use as poles for thatching their houses. Some were venturing into the forest to hunt small wild game like hares. This was becoming a problem.

So during one meeting with officials from World Vision, we complained about the alarming problem, which if left unchecked would reverse our gains. That’s when we were told to start beekeeping, which would not only provide us with honey, but would also scare away those thinking of cutting trees in the regenerated forests.

So how did you go about getting started in beekeeping?

After we accepted, World Vision Malawi organized some beekeeping trainings for us. They trained us on how we can keep beehives in the forest, how we can care for them, and how we can harvest the honey at given times to ensure maximum productivity.

 

Woo that’s interesting. And where did you get your first hives. Did you make them yourselves?

At first, World Vision Malawi gave us 60 beehives to start our beekeeping venture in the naturally-regenerated forests, but now, after seeing the fruits we were reaping from the endeavour, we added our own beehives. Now we have close to 85 beehives. Eventually we formed a cooperative, which we called Malangazi Beekeeping Cooperative.

Mr. Moyo, can you explain the composition of the cooperative and how many members do you have in the cooperative?

Malangazi Beekeeping Cooperative is composed of nine clubs, which have a membership of twenty members each who take turns in protecting our forests and looking after the beehives on a daily basis. Most men were reluctant to join the cooperative so we had a good number of women at first, but eventually men started seeing sense in what we are doing. So currently, our cooperative is of mixed membership, though we still have more women than men.

Since you started beekeeping in the forests, have you seen any improvement in protecting the resource?

Yes, a lot has changed. Nowadays people do not cut trees in the forest, as they fear the bees. They feel they may be attacked, but members know where the beehives are located and the best times for them to go inside the forest to avoid being stung by the bees.

You mentioned that the cooperative members are responsible for protecting the forest. How do you ensure that the forest is protected?

As I said, the membership of the clubs is twenty people per club forming the association. So each club has its own ways of protecting the forests. As for Kapirinkunga club, where we are today, the members have further come up with groups of five that take turns visiting the forests every single day. Each group does this for a period of one week, then another takes over.

The groups will check on the firebreaks to make sure there’s no dead wood or dried leaves that can start a fire. They will check the hives to make sure no one as been tampering with them. And they will check to see if there has been any illegal collection of firewood in the forest.

Thank you Mr. Moyo. It has been interesting speaking to you.

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Let’s now turn to the treasurer of the cooperative, Lizzie Banda, to hear about how members are financially benefiting from honey production.

Mr. Moyo here says beekeeping has tremendously improved the lives of members of the cooperative, as apart from protecting the forests from those who cut down trees carelessly, the honey you harvest is sold, shared, and some proceeds shared among members. Can you explain how this is done?

First, let me concur with my chairperson that beekeeping has helped us a lot in conserving our regenerated forests. Indeed, people are now afraid to go inside the forest as they fear the bees.

Turning to other benefits of beekeeping, there are a lot, both on the economic front and in fighting deforestation. For starters, when we harvest the honey, which is two times a year, we share some of the honey among the members and the rest we sell as a cooperative. Some of the honey given to members is sold at the household level.

Each beehive produces 25 to 30 litres of honey during harvesting. With 85 hives, that’s more than 2,000 litres per harvest. Each member is given 10 litres of honey and the rest is for the cooperative to sell and share the proceeds. Some of the proceeds are also kept to run the cooperative.

As a member of Malangazi Beekeeping Cooperative, my share of the co-operative’s revenue amounts to about 54,000 kwacha ($30 US) every harvest time, but sometimes I get more or less because of price fluctuations.

With such proceeds from the cooperative, we feel motivated enough as now we are able to at least meet some basic needs at home, complementing efforts from our husbands. Some of us have bought pigs, some goats, and we are also involved in village savings and loans groups, where we loan each other money according to one’s shares.

Some of the honey that ends up in our households is also consumed by us. As you know, honey is also a remedy for stomach ulcers.

As women members of the cooperative, can you elaborate on how you help in the forests, especially in your beekeeping venture?

We do a lot. We help the men folk, who set up the hives in the forest. We also assist when it comes to harvesting the honey, as we have protective gear and we mainly do this early in the morning when bees do not sting.

We also take turns in selling the honey at trading centers, in institutions like schools and hospitals. And we also help in keeping the forest safe by making firebreaks around the forests to protect them from fire incidents.

Mr. Moyo also mentioned that you benefit from collecting firewood from the forest. How do you ensure sustainability when collecting firewood?

Mr. Moyo is right. Especially as women, we were meeting a lot of challenges in our families in the past. As you know, here in Malawi, we mostly rely on firewood as energy for our cooking. So in this vein we designated days when women can go into the forests to collect dead wood, trees that have dried up.

In this, was we ensure that the forest is used sustainably. One cannot go into the forest to collect firewood carelessly. The fear of the bees is a deterrent to those with such minds. So it’s usually women in our cooperative who lead the firewood collection, especially in the wee hours.

As women members of the cooperative, how has beekeeping helped in conserving the naturally-regenerated forests and do you feel the endeavour is worth it?

Yes, it has been worth it, because apart from the honey we harvest from the beehives, we also harvest other products like mushrooms and firewood. Additionally, weather patterns have also changed. We no longer experience unpredictable rainfall, our rivers are not drying up as before. Now we do irrigation farming, where we grow crops like vegetables, tomatoes, and maize, which supplements our food requirements.

Individually, in your family, how has beekeeping changed your life and what can you say to others?

My family and I have benefitted a lot from beekeeping. Through the honey we have been harvesting and the share I am getting, I am now a proud owner of goats and pigs. I pay school fees for my children, who are now in secondary school, and I can attest that keeping beehives in protected forests is the way to go in conservation of such resources.

From the goats and pigs I keep, I collect manure, which I also use in applying to my gardens, especially where I grow vegetables for my household. At the individual level, I have ulcers and I use the honey as medication.

Thank you Mrs Banda. It has been very interesting speaking to you.

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Now, let’s now hear from the vice chairperson, Ellen Moyo, who will help us look forward. First of all, are you a relation of the chairperson?

No, I am not. It just happens that my husband is also Mr. Moyo.

I see. Now Mrs. Moyo, every endeavour has some challenges. What can you cite as challenges in your beekeeping endeavour?

The main challenge comes when we are looking for markets for our honey. Yes, the bees are a major way of fending off people from illegally cutting down trees, but they also give us honey and we sometimes struggle to find steady markets for our honey. So we pack our bottles of honey in baskets and move around to trading centers, schools, or hospitals to sell our products.

If we had more resources to brand our honey bottles, things would be better because we would be selling them wholesale to supermarkets. But slow and steady, we are moving there.

What can you say to other villagers out there who are now struggling with unpredictable rainfall patterns, dried up rivers?

 

Forests are being ravaged and there is a lot of land degradation due to running water during the rainy season. Please go for natural tree regeneration and introduce beekeeping as a natural guard of the forests. You will not only protect the forest, but will also reap rewards from selling honey.

 

Thank you so much, Mrs. Moyo. Any plans for the future, as a cooperative?

 

We have many plans, but the main one is to increase the number of beehives as this will translate into enhanced protection of the resource and a rise in proceeds from honey sales as our production will increase.

 

Thank you Mrs. Moyo and the leadership of Malangazi Natural Resources Management Cooperative. It has been interesting hearing from you.

 

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Now, let’s hear from Isaac Baloyi, an assistant forestry officer for Mzimba district, who will tell us a bit more about natural forest regeneration in this region.

 

Mr Baloyi, tell us a bit about climate change and deforestation in this region, and the role of natural forest regeneration.

 

A lot of areas in the district are being impacted negatively by the effects of climate change mainly because of massive forest degradation from charcoal production. This is most common as 93% of the population rely on charcoal and firewood for their daily cooking, so it is a very big problem.

 

Climate change is also resulting in unpredictable rainfall patterns, dry spells, and soil degradation resulting in poor yields and food insecurity as people cannot harvest enough. Doing winter irrigation farming becomes a problem as many rivers dry up, hence they cannot be used for irrigation. So, as a way of mitigating climate change and with support from our partners, we embarked on training communities on how they can regenerate forests for their own betterment.

 

The other thing is that most small-scale farmers still indulge in shifting cultivation, where they cut trees over a vast piece of land and burn the dried trees to ashes before planting millet on the cleared land. That is a growing problem for deforestation in the region.

 

What’s mainly involved in natural regeneration?

 

Natural regeneration happens mainly by leaving degraded forest areas undisturbed for an extended length of time. This gives a chance for the trees to regrow with minimal human intervention. This is commendable as trees grow in their natural habitats in a short period of time. The trees can regenerate naturally alongside grass and herbs or shrubs. This method allows trees to regrow through root suckers and that’s what as the forestry department we are recommending.

 

After letting the forest regenerate, it is okay for communities to set up activities like beekeeping and harvesting mushrooms, and even dead wood?

 

Yes, communities are free and are encouraged to set up beehives in the regenerated forests. This is so because apart from the monetary value they get from selling honey after harvesting, the bees also help in protecting the forests from illegal activities. The bees also help in enhancing pollination of crops in surrounding gardens so it’s beneficial to keep bees in the forests.

 

Dead wood collection is also encouraged for use as firewood, but not all the dead wood should be collected as it supports the ecosystem where fungi and other small insects thrive. Dead wood, when decayed, can provide soil nutrients, which support the growth of plants and trees.

 

Dead wood can also support mushroom growth, which can be collected as a supplement to the diet or even for sale.

 

As government, we are very happy and impressed with what Malangazi Natural Resources Management Cooperative is doing in protecting their forests using the beekeeping method, and I urge all communities to take a hand in protecting forests.

 

There are many ways we can use to protect forests. We can plant new trees using seedlings, but we can also do well with natural regeneration of forests because trees grow very fast. So please, let’s take care of our forests, because we cannot live without them.

 

Thank you Mr. Baloyi. And thank you to the Malangazi Natural Resources Management Cooperative for sharing their experience with natural forest regeneration and beekeeping. We hope this has inspired you to consider how you can protect your forest and still benefit.