Beekeeping as an incentive to catchment rehabilitation

ABSTRACT

The aim was to generate income and rehabilitate a degraded catchment by integrating beekeeping and motivating the local community for environmental conservation. After the intervention, total honey yields and revenues were increased 6-fold. Assessment of the catchment revealed 29 bee-forage species, an increment of 13 plant species, of which seven species were added through planting, and 6 were through natural regeneration. The diversity of the bee-plants was 1.0 and 1.6 before and after the intervention, respectively.

KEYWORDS:

• Beekeeping
• income diversification
• watershed conservation

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the Holeta Bee Research Centre for facilities and Agricultural Growth Program-II (AGP-II) for financial support. We express our gratitude to Tesfaye Abera and Gedefa Geremo for an enormous exertion of follow-up and technical support of the beekeepers and the planted species in the catchment and to the whole local community for their good participation in all activities.

Disclosure statement

No conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).