By
Friday Simbaya, Iringa
Tanzania
is a mega-biodiversity country with six globally recognized biodiversity
hotspots. The country is home to about twenty percent of Africa’s large mammals
and has at least 14,500 known species. Tanzania is among 15 countries with the
highest number of endemic as well as threatened species. Tanzania accounts for
more than one-third of total plant species in Africa and ranks twelfth globally
in terms of bird species.
According
to Lawyers’ Environmental Action Team’s Communication Officer, Miss Edina
Tibaijuka, forests and wildlife contribute immensely to ecosystem services in
Tanzania. “They produce food and water, they control climate and diseases, and
they support nutrient cycles and crop pollination and have spiritual and
recreational benefits” says Miss Tibaijuka. In essence human life in Tanzania
and in most - if not all - parts of the world cannot be detached from
surrounding environments and ecosystems. Communities in Tanzania and around the
world should invest heavily in managing wildlife and forest resources, due to
their high value
Regrettably,
forest and wildlife resources in Tanzania are susceptible to lots of management
challenges. Their survival are threatened by the presence of conflicting and
contradictory laws and policies, corruption, lack of integrated framework for
natural resources management, improper land use planning, weak national
capacity for environmental impact assessment, and rapid population growth to
mention but a few. These challenges lead to poverty, drying up of water
sources, disappearing of vegetation, and climate change. The bottom line is,
forests and wildlife resources are in danger due to high incidences of poverty
of surrounding village communities.
Given
the increase of deforestation and illegal utilization practices, LEAT, under
the grant from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
is currently implementing a four-year project known as “Citizens Engaging in Government
Oversight in Natural Resources Management (CEGO-NRM)”. The project aims to
nurture the engagement of citizens in the management of natural resources
particularly forests and wildlife. The project is empowering citizens, through
capacity building trainings and advocacy, in order to increase their awareness
on natural resources management and social accountability monitoring. Moreover,
the project is supporting villagers to venture into alternative, but
environmental friendly, income generating activities, beekeeping in particular.
To
this end, LEAT provided a total of 700 modern beehives to 32 groups of
beekeepers in 32 villages in Mufindi and Iringa districts, Iringa region. Consequence
to that, LEAT provided them with protective gears, beekeeping manuals and
tailored trainings to encourage eco-friendly livelihood practices. Ms.
Tibaijuka says, “The aim of relieving villagers with beekeeping projects is to
offer village communities with alternative and approachable ways of gaining
economic income thus sustaining adjacent forest and wildlife resources.”
Tambalang’ombe
village in Sadani Ward in Mufindi District, Iringa region is one of the 32
project villages that were given 22 beehives out of 700 provided by LEAT. The
secretary of its beekeeping group, Mr. Eleuteri Kipembe says, “beekeeping
has helped us to protect the village forest reserve from destruction because
people fear to burn forests due to beehives that are in village forest, and to
date about 14 beehives have been colonized. They also fear that if caught they
will be criminally prosecuted.”
Similarly,
Ms. Maida Makalimoto, the secretary of the beekeeping group at Igombavanu
village in Mufindi district, said that their group started in 2016 after being
given 22 beehives by LEAT. She went on to say that to now there are 16 of the
22 beehives with bees and they are were hoping to harvest honey by the end of
June 2017. "Honey is used as food, as a cure for various diseases and is a
good source of income and eventually reduces poverty," added Makalimoto.
Beekeeping
is not only supplementing village households with nutritious food but also
plays part in securing extra income thus slowing down deforestation. In few
villages, the establishment of shed for beehives or a bee
house containing a number of beehives (apiaries) has
slowed down the unproductive use of forest resources.
Members
of the supported beekeeping groups now participate in managing forest reserves
as forest reserves provide flowers and home for bee colonies. Miss Tibaijuka
added that, other specific objectives of the project is to bring efficiency to
the protection, maintenance and use of forest resources and to foster
villagers’ entrepreneurship which will enable them to start projects along the
honey’s value chain and thus be able to sell honey, beeswax, pollen and other
bee produces.
The
thirty-two supported groups in Mufindi and Iringa districts aside, all
Tanzanians - both men and women -have a chance to participate in beekeeping.
Tanzania is blessed with areas that are conducive for safe and profitable
beekeeping ventures. Beekeeping requires little start-up capital but has many
social, economic, and environmental benefits. With proper understanding of
national policies, laws, and regulations, Tanzanians will be able to start and
run beekeeping projects and obtain tangible economic benefits and conserve
their environments.
Moreover,
beekeeping can also contribute individual and national efforts of tackling
climate Change, added Miss Tibaijuka. The effects of climate change are in
Tanzania in general and Iringa in particular are easy to see. The weather
patterns have changed greatly in the recent years. Unsustainable uses of
natural resources and emissions of greenhouses in the atmosphere are on the
rise. The cutting of forests results into the release of stored carbon dioxide
in to the atmosphere. The Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism in his
2015/16 budget speech stated that a total of 372,000 hectares of forests are
lost each year due to unsustainable anthropogenic activities in the country,
especially on forests that are managed by district councils. With big
beekeeping projects, communities will conserve biodiversity thus create carbon
sinks for greenhouse gases.
To
wind up, Miss Tibaijuka stated that the country has requisite beekeeping
policy, legal and regulatory regime that if properly translated into action and
enforced will make the beekeeping industry to grow and thrive in Tanzania.
These include the National Beekeeping Policy of 1998 and the Beekeeping Act of
2002. These not only allow the establishment of national, district and village
beekeeping reserves but also individual beekeeping farms. Unfortunately, many
Tanzanians do not know them. Efforts should be made to make them aware of them
and seize opportunities offered by the Beekeeping Act.
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