Abstract
BackgroundInitiatives for beekeeping intensification across the tropics can foster production and income, but the changes triggered by the introduction of modern beehives might permeate traditional knowledge and practices in multiple ways, and as such should be investigated and understood. We conducted an ethnobotanical study in the Eastern part of the Mau Forest among Ogiek beekeepers who customarily practice forest beekeeping and who are involved in a project aimed at the modernization of their beekeeping activities. We aimed to document the beekeeping-associated ethnobotanical knowledge, exploring the relationships and complementarity between modern and traditional knowledge and practices.MethodsField research was carried out through semi-structured interviews with 30 Ogiek beekeepers and 10 additional stakeholders. We collected ethnobotanical data about plants used for beekeeping purposes, and ethnographic information on traditional and modern beekeeping systems.ResultsWe report 66 plant species, distributed across 36 botanical families representing 58 genera, important as melliferous, for the construction and placing of hives, attracting bees, and harvesting and storing honey. Dombeya torrida (J.F.Gmel.) Bamps, Juniperus procera Hochst. ex Endl., and Podocarpus latifolius (Thunb.) R.Br. ex Mirb. are the species with the most mentions and the highest number of uses. Our study reveals that the Ogiek possess a detailed knowledge of the forest’s flora, its importance and uses and that this knowledge underpins beekeeping practices. Under the influence of external actors, the Ogiek have progressively adopted modern versus traditional log hives and moved beekeeping out of the forest into open areas of pastures and crop fields. Beekeepers are also experimenting with combinations of practices borrowed from modern and traditional beekeeping systems, particularly in the field of hive construction and in the criteria to set up apiaries.ConclusionsThe study indicates a complementarity and an incipient hybridization of traditional and modern beekeeping, in a way that suggests that modern beehives are instrumental in expanding the reach of beekeeping into deforested and cultivated areas. The study also points to the existence of a rift in the effects of beekeeping intensification on the livelihoods of the Ogiek and on their relationship with the forest. We argue that this intensification might be improving the former but weakening the latter, carrying the associated risk of erosion of traditional forest-based ethnobotanical knowledge.
Highlights
Beekeeping and honey hold a very important economic, social and cultural role for several ethnic groups and rural communities across the tropics [1, 2]
In the tropics, where forest ecosystems are critically threatened by human encroachment, traditional forest beekeeping is seen as a sustainable practice, whose maintenance and promotion can contribute to the conservation of forests and associated biodiversity, as well as to the resilience of local communities [5, 6]
This study is an endeavour to understand the dynamics of livelihood and cultural change and adaptation associated with processes of promotion of local and indigenous products
Summary
Beekeeping and honey hold a very important economic, social and cultural role for several ethnic groups and rural communities across the tropics [1, 2]. The strategy at stake in these initiatives is multi-level and aimed at the promotion of production in three main directions: intensification of honey production in terms of quantity per beehive/beekeeper (e.g. through the introduction of modern beehives and techniques, training and extension programs), product valorisation (e.g. improvement of marketability) and expansion in terms of the number of beekeepers and land used [3, 7, 8]. Initiatives of this kind have mainly focused on the replacement of traditional hives with the introduction of modern hives, based on the notion that the latter have higher yields than the former [9, 10]. Thousands of log hives were spread across the forest, located high up in specific trees, and honey production relied on the spontaneous occupation of the hives by swarms of bees tracking flowering plants in different seasons in different forest habitats [40]
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