Science supports profitable beekeeping in Cameroon

© CIFOR/Yayan Indriatmoko

BOGOR, Indonesia (27 May, 2011)_Until recently, beekeepers in Cameroon have had little access to market opportunities. Now, as a result of CIFOR research, a network of small-scale rural enterprises is helping local beekeepers realise the profits that have eluded them for too long.

In 2006, the non-governmental Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV) commissioned a market study of the apiculture sector in Cameroon. The potential of beekeeping in the country was judged to be substantial.

Inspired by the opportunity, the team that performed the study for SNV established a small enterprise named Guiding Hope to link producer communities to emerging markets. The team’s strategy was aided by CIFOR’s analysis, which highlighted the roles played by men, women and youths in beekeeping chains, and how these could be improved.

The study, published in the June 2009 edition of LEISA Magazine, showed critical links between wild forest honey and honey produced in hives. Analysing the characteristics of hive products and the botanical sources of propolis and honey enabled products that were previously only sold locally to be marketed internationally.

Today, Guiding Hope collaborates with 1040 beekeeping households, providing training in production, quality control, administration and accounting. In 2010, producers exported 22 tonnes of honey, 100 tonnes of wax and 60 kilogrammes of propolis to Europe.

Also in 2010, Body Shop International began to use Guiding Hope honey and wax in its products. And the company was recently presented with the Science and Practice of Ecology and Society Award—an annual honour given to an individual or organisation that successfully brings the science of social–ecological interactions into practice.

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For more information:

Sweet, sticky, and sustainable social business by Ingram, V.; Njikeu, J