Rational use of forest land honey reserve for honey collection of the Toratau geopark of the Republic of Bashkortostan

Abstract

Besides obtaining valuable beekeeping products, bee families have a positive effect when pollinating forest plants, ensuring both high productivity of resources and promoting the conservation and favourable development of natural populations of forest species. The object of the study, the lands of the forest fund of the Toratau geopark of the Republic of Bashkortostan, serve as an optimization of the number, expansion of the range and maintaining the genetic purity of the population of the indigenous Burzyan side bee (Apis mellifera L). There needs to be more information on the inventory of honey resources on the territory of the Geopark. Therefore, the goal was to determine the honey stock of forest land for productive medical collection and rational use of resources. As a result of research, land with an area of 479,640 hectares was covered with forest, which includes significant territories of linden stands (213335 hectares - 44.5%) and broad-leaved forest that does not have nectarines of linden and maple (194924 ha - 40.6%). Lipnyak is characterized by a biological resource potential of 96117283.3 kg and a broad-leaved forest, respectively, 904447.36 kg. The total estimated honey reserve of the territory of the Republic of Belarus mountain-forest zone consists of 104 595 108 kg, which will allow for keeping up to 560,704 bee families. Small-leaved linden accounts for 89.3%, located extremely unevenly in the studied territory. In the years favourable for the production of linden, the organization of nomadic beekeeping is necessary. The share of nectar reserves of maple, willow and grassy communities relative to but is small and amounts to 9.6%. However, given the instability of colour and nectar release of linden, the presence of alternative sources of nectar allows the preservation of the number of stationary bee families in the “lean years.”