Investigating the Role of Apiculture in Watershed Management and Income Improvement in Galessa Protected Area, Ethiopia

Abstract

Beekeeping gives local people economic incentive for the preservation of natural habitats and is an ideal activity in watershed conservation program. The study was designed to assess and demonstrate the contribution of improved beekeeping for income generation and sustainable watershed management in Galessa protected area. For this purpose households were purposively selected based on their interest in beekeeping, experience in traditional beekeeping and proximity of residence to watershed areas. Training on beekeeping and integrations of beekeeping with watershed management were provided. Data of honey yield, bee plants, and annual income obtained from honey and field crops before and after improved beekeeping intervention were collected. Accordingly, the mean annual honey yield, income obtained from honey sales, bee forage planting practice and number of transitional hives owned by the beekeepers are significantly different between the sample households (P<0.05) before and after intermediate beekeeping intervention but the number of traditional hives owned was not significantly different between the household. The total honey yield has increased almost by two fold and the annual revenue increased by 6.5 folds. Therefore integration of intermediate beekeeping technology with conservation of watershed can enhance the income of household and encourages planting of bee forages which directly contributes for sustainable watershed managements. Thus demonstration and scaling up improved beekeeping technology should be promoted for sustainable watershed rehabilitation and to diversify the household income.

An iconic traditional apiculture of park fringe communities of Borena Sayint National Park, north eastern Ethiopia

“…Emerging practices of integration of apiculture with watershed protection projects [4, 9], the recognition of the contribution of crop plants pollination [2, 3, 10] and the location of BSNP at the upper watershed relative to the Great Renaissance Dam Project site implicates the significance of the bee forage species diversity in BSNP for initiating apiculture-related development projects. Sixty seven (19 %) species grouped in 60 genera and 41 families were locally perceived as more valuable bee forage plants (Appendix 1) than the remaining species.…”

“…In the dendrogram at linkage distance 25, two cluster solutions separate two groups [3, 14, 2, 12, 5, 6] and [8, 9, 4, 13, 7, 11, 1, 10] from influences of environmental proximity and a combination of other factors. Key informants [3, 14, 2, 12] live close to the margins of the TIKUR DEN vegetation while [8, 9, 4, 13, 7, 11, 1, 10] close to the GUASSA vegetation. But astonishingly, key informants 5 and 6 of the GUASSA group aligned differently in their responses with the TIKUR DEN vegetation group.…”

“…The Improving Productivity and Marketing Success (IPMS) of Ethiopian Farmers Project consider beekeeping as one of the prime activities producing priority marketable commodities in a number of its Pilot Learning districts/weredas [1]. The apiculture programme encourages community participation in conservation and local livelihood development over subsistence agriculture that has only little pay offs to improve the living standards of communities and rather leads to depletion of natural resources [9, 10]. Also, the Agricultural Sector Support Project (ASSP) has identified priority issues to improve the management of watersheds through categorization of land-use patterns involving beekeeping projects [9].…”

“…Five hundred honey bee plants of various growth habits have been illustrated for the honey bee flora of Ethiopia [19]. Also, there are attempts to investigate the role of apiculture in protected areas watershed management and local income improvement [10]. But studies focussing on the ethnobotanical aspects of apicultural traditions held by indigenous communities living in and around protected areas are just meagre.…”

Perception of communities when managing exclosures as common pool resources in northwestern Ethiopia

“…Individuals, households, and communities are more likely to accept or invest in activities that enable land rehabilitation over a long period of time, if there are immediate economic incentives to invest (Mekuria et al, 2020). In this line, Ethiopian and Kenyan studies (Kifle, Hora, & Merti, 2014;Wairore, Mureithi, Wasonga, & Nyberg, 2016) demonstrated short-term benefits from exclosures can be enhanced through integrating beekeeping and livestock production. The IAD framework also suggested that costs and benefits assigned to an intervention dictate the interaction and exchange of goods and services among participants.…”