Charles Pensulo -
Bonster Kabaghe was fresh out of secondary school when he witnessed how a denuded piece of land turned green after beehives were introduced on cotton farms near where he was living with his uncle in Malawi’s tobacco-growing district of Ntchisi.
Back then, in his teens, Kabaghe did not grasp the connection between people’s fear of bee stings and rejuvenation of the area’s trees.
But he has since adopted the approach in his native village of Mwenekabwe, in the northern district of Karonga, on a quest to save its fast-depleting forest and help locals make money. “When I came here, I noticed most trees had been cut down and the land was bare,” said Kabaghe, now a 36-year-old community health worker. “Yet the trees are also everything to the people, including their use for firewood and medicine’’. Many of the trees that covered this mountainous region have been cut down illegally for fuel, as in other parts of Malawi.
Little more than a tenth of its 17 million people are connected to the national electricity grid.
Even among those who have grid power, few can afford to use it for cooking, leaving them reliant on firewood and charcoal and adding to the strain on local forests.
Globally, deforestation is recognised as a major driver of biodiversity loss, climate change and damage to the natural services provided by ecosystems, such as hydrological cycles that are essential for rainfall and water supplies. Malawi is losing an estimated 81,545 acres of forest per year, a problem caused mainly by agricultural expansion and the use of wood as fuel to cure tobacco and burn bricks, according to researchers at Japan’s Hokkaido University. Kabaghe said he was initially afraid to set up the green-painted, wooden coffin-like beehives in the forest and along rivers, unsure of how people would react.
Eventually he partnered with a friend who knew the local community, and they started with four hives.
“At first people were laughing at us, saying where could we find bees to fill the hives? They thought we were out of our minds but after three days, a swarm of bees came in,” he said.
The duo managed to harvest honey worth about $100 in 2017, their first year. They have since added more hives, which cost roughly $15 each, and now have about 20, earning $300 last year. But they have come up against challenges, such as resistance from those who used to cut down local trees, said Kabaghe.
“Some people were threatening us after they couldn’t access the areas where there were beehives,” he said.
“But we noticed this is a plus to us as it means our mission to save the environment is bearing
fruit,” he added.
Areas without beehives have hundreds of tree stumps — a sign of deforestation — whereas rivers and other places where the hives are situated are green with trees and vegetation.
Today, even chiefs and traditional leaders have started to appreciate the initiative.
To gain local trust, Kabaghe and his colleague shared their honey with community members, especially those living close to the hives, and have invited some to join their group.
As the area’s forest has started growing back, their lives have changed for the better, said Kabaghe. He has now bought some livestock and can help his family more with money, sustainably harvested wood and natural medicines.
Chifundo Dalireni, Lilongwe branch manager for the Wildlife and Environmental Society of Malawi, urged other parts of the country to adopt a similar approach
to protecting forests.
In communities where beekeeping is practiced, little or no deforestation is taking place, he said — but they are still getting very limited support.
— Thomson Reuters Foundation
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