Bees for Development Ethiopia is working with the community in Alehuay, helping to restore a large area of degraded hillside. As the site recovers through gully stablisation and treeplanting, the re-growing shrubs and herbs produce nectar and pollen. Beekeeping is the first productive and economic activity which can exploit these recovering natural resources in a way that enriches the area, and causes no damage. We are now working to provide beekeeping training to members of the local community giving them to means to support their lives, selling honey and beeswax, creating income for food, clothes and medicines.

Here at Bees for Development we promote beehives which are practical, profitable and affordable. We teach people how to make top-bar hives – a simple movable comb hive which makes harvesting easy. Ethiopia-style woven hives can be made at very low cost and they can be placed in forests to attract bees and are easy to colonise. We promote techniques which have been proven to work in practice, and meet the needs of small-scale farmers.

Landlessness for young adults is a real problem in Amhara, which coupled with a lack of formal employment opportunities, is causing severe poverty for many young families – who spend a significant proportion of their income to rent land and buy food. Hunger, exploitation, insecurity and migration are the major consequences of landlessness. We are working to give young women and men a reliable income source from beekeeping. Beekeeping is feasible for people with limited land as bee colonies can be kept next to the home, whilst the bees forage far and wide on land belonging to other people. They bring nectar back to the beekeeper who is then able to sell honey, to earn much-needed income. We provide training, in all aspects of beekeeping. Our programmes start with teaching people how to make their own hives – so that once they have the skills they need, they can scale up their beekeeping on their own. The young people we have trained are earning good income, not only from selling honey, but also from selling bees – harnessing the power of bees to sustain their lives.