FAO invests in beekeeping as an alternative support for rural communities as the covid-19 pandemic stifles socio-economic activities
The Department of Forestry has installed 510 beehives within 21Community Managed Forest parks in the North Bank, Lower River, Central and Upper River regions. The initiative is supported by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) through the European Union funded regional project “Action Against Desertification” which provided 300 beehives for 15 communities and the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) funded “Community Based Sustainable Dryland Forest Management” Project which gave 210 beehives to honey enterprise groups in 6 communities. The intervention will enable poor rural communities to engage in all year round eco-friendly income generation activities that will transform their quality of life especially in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change and economic stagnation through improved and sustainable production; enhanced nutrition; and increased income.
Innovations and transformation of livelihoods are key for the sustainable implementation of the Decade of Action and delivery on the Sustainable Development Goals without leaving no one behind. Both projects are supporting the Department of Forestry to assist their target beneficiaries in the four regions to promote and enhance sustainable forest management through Community Forestry and community-based forest entrepreneurial initiatives such as modern beekeeping, nursery management, ecotourism and handicraft development. The ultimate objective is to contribute to sound environmental management, and enhancement of ecosystems and livelihoods of forest dependent communities by restoring degraded lands, preventing forest fires, and the creation employment opportunities.
The forest management committees (1/3 of whom are female) in all the beneficiary communities have been trained in modern beekeeping including honey collection, processing and value addition techniques. Honey harvesting and processing from the supplied beehives is expected to start within the next four months if the hives are colonized on time; contributing to address some basic community socio-economic challenges. Thus this intervention will help support livelihoods, increase food security and nutrition as well as reduce poverty and enhance resilience to the Covid-19 pandemic which has already impacted negatively on businesses and a host of economic activities across the world.
Bee keeping aligns well with the National Forestry Policy 2010 – 2019 with the full support of the FAO aiming to amongst others promote private sector involvement in non-wood forest products’ processing and marketing to boost the economic value of Gambian forests and hence increase the contribution of the sector to economic growth without undermining agricultural development interventions and leaving no one behind.