Conservation logic in the forests of south-west Ethiopia: Linking honey producers to markets and the implications for sustainable forest management

Sustainable trade in non-wood forest products (NWFPs) has been much tested as a strategy for leading to the dual objectives of forest conservation and poverty reduction. Whilst this approach has met with concerns about elite capture, poverty traps and unsustainable harvesting, the literature on NWFP commercialisation identifies key factors essential for NWFP enterprises to work well. One of these factors concerns the relationship between those who manage the forest, and those who derive income from the forest. This paper discusses NWFP development and marketing in the biodiverse forests of south-west Ethiopia, and describes the institutions in place to manage forests under participatory forest management (PFM) and the different forms of trade for NWFPs, principally honey. Forest use decisions were in the past partly governed by family claims to bee trees and so-called ‘honey forests’, which indicate that the link between conservation and trade is not new. The context is research and development work undertaken by the University of Huddersfield and Ethio-Wetlands and Natural Resources Association, 2003 to date. Participatory forest management associations (FMAs) have responsibility for demarcated forest areas. NWFP marketing is carried out by different forms of co-operatives, some with structural links to the FMAs and others with none. Honey trade is also carried out by farmer-owned trading companies and individual traders. This paper explores how project work linking producers to markets has been obliged to pay close attention to the connection between the way trade happens and the way forest management happens i.e. the conservation logic. There is some evidence that the increasing honey price is revitalising traditional claims to bee trees, and co-operatives linked to FMAs understand the rationale for giving a percentage of their profits to the FMA. The paper discusses the link between sustainable forest management and honey income

Forest beekeeping in Zambia: Analysing the nexus of sustainable forest management and commercial honey trade

The need to achieve human development without harming the natural systems on which all life depends, is one of the greatest challenges of our times. The aim of this research is to deploy and develop social-ecological systems thinking to a miombo forest landscape in north west Zambia where thousands of people make a living from forest beekeeping. There exists significant critique about whether trade in non-timber forest products (NTFPs) can help deliver the dual goals of poverty alleviation and forest maintenance. Trade in forest honey appears to be an exceptional case, yet inadequately studied. This research fills a gap in understanding about the link between forest honey trade and forest maintenance. Honey trade is already commercialised in north west Zambia and so provides a case study scenario within which to ask, Given that the market for honey is assured, do beekeepers maintain forests’? Case study methodology found that trade is driving an increase in forest beekeeping, with income invested in education, in farming and as capital for other enterprises. Self-reported measures of economic wellbeing showed beekeepers to be slightly better off than non-beekeepers. Beekeepers negotiate de facto rights to hive sites and engage in ‘early burning’ to mitigate potential damage to flowers, bees and trees caused by dry season fires. Beekeepers apply this forest protection tool over thousands of hectares of forest. Beekeepers do not manage forests using scientific principles of inventory and planning, and features of a common-property management regime are largely absent. The study reveals entities and components of a forest beekeeping livelisystem – a complex, knowledge rich system where ecological elements and human elements are intricately connected in a robust social-ecological system The system is driven by trade, is productive and works with minimal external costs. The role beekeepers play in maintaining this forest system must be acknowledged and supported by development planners, local authorities and leaders and consumers who buy the honey