Movya Beekeeping Club in Nkhata Bay was established after members realised the consequences of deforestation on people’s everyday livelihood

* Some forests suffered greatly at our merciless hands as we were into serious charcoal burning and selling

* I paid my academic tuition fees using money made from burning charcoal and selling—successful bee-keeping farmer

Feature by Joel Phiri, MANA

When Blasco Nkhata, 51, of John Chumia Village in Traditional Authority (T/A) Kabunduli in Nkhata Bay decided to call it time on his borehole drilling business in 2012 in Salima, he decided to go back home to occupy the house that had been left idle following the passing on of his parents.

“I was owning water drilling company and was based in Salima,” he narrates of his life journey. “But when the machinery worn out and I had no funds to continue running the business, I just decided to relocate to my home village.

“My relocation was partly because my parents had both passed on and the house was lying unoccupied in Nkhata Bay. I decided to come and occupy it,” he said.

Now back home, Nkhata had no readily available source of income to keep him going and having Movwe Forest Reserve just behind his house, the first thought that came to mind was venturing into the charcoal making business.

“I recall that back in the 1980s, when I was doing my secondary school at Lwazi Malawi College of Distance of Education (MCDE), some forests in the district suffered greatly at our merciless hands as we were into serious charcoal burning and selling. I paid my tuition using money made from burning charcoal and selling,” he recalls.

So, when all the shove came to a push in pursuit of what to do to survive financially, the only business Nkhata could think of was that of felling trees and making charcoal.

But, just at a time he thought of starting cutting trees for charcoal, a new development changed his course of action — Modern Cooking for Healthy Forests (MCFHF) came around the same time and introduced bee-keeping to some communities in Nkhata Bay.

Nkhata and his colleagues of like minds embraced the idea and formed Movya Beekeeping Club having appreciated how climate change has induced changes in weather patterns while also causing weather-related disasters.

That thought alone influenced his change of heart and they had to give beekeeping a chance — this is how Movya Beekeeping Club was established.

“Having realised the consequences of deforestation on our everyday livelihood such as floods and unpredictable rainfall patterns, we decided to guard against charcoal burning. We thus opted for bee-keeping and now we don’t regret,” explained the leader of the club which has 26 members.

The club has 84 bee hives strewn across Movya forest reserve which covers 20 hectares of land and Nkhata said the club’s members make sure Movya forest was being guarded against invasion by charcoal makers because their honey-making business would be pushed into oblivion if trees become extinct.

So far, since MCFHF came into the district, several bee-keeping clubs have emerged and there is Makwezu Youth Club, Kaning’ina Bee keeping Club and Manolo Beekeeping Club in the area of T/A Timbiri.

MCHF official, Wezzie Chisenga says bee-keeping provides a sustainable income source and incentivises forest protection and restoration — and that all the clubs are working hard to protect forests from where they earn a living from the beehives they pegged in tree branches.

Treasurer for Manolo Bee-keeping Club, Gertrude Chande explained the symbiotic relationship that exist between conserving trees and making money from honeybees: “Bee-keeping farming survives on having trees. Honey bees feast on flowers found in some trees so we have to protect the trees if we have to sustain our livelihood we earn from beekeeping.”

The benefits of raising honey bees have been lifesaving and according to Nkhata, most Movya Club members have built houses and some have changed the roofs from grass thatched to iron sheets.

“The last harvesting season was in January and we sold honey worth K1.4 million,” he said. “The same has been the trend in previous years and when we share the profits most members invest in sensible things like housing and starting small-scale businesses to keep them going.”

Nkhata had to reroof his late parents’ house which he found in great ruins — all from proceeds earned through selling honey which they sale to traders across the country.

He added that to improve on their earning, they produce wax candles and mosquito repellents from the honey, saying: “Honey is serious and profitable business. Instead of desecrating our fast waning forests I would urge those still clinging to felling trees for a living to switch to beekeeping — they won’t regret.”

Member of Makwezu Beekeeping Youth Club from T/A Timbiri, Jacob Mhone, says they sell the honey they harvest to Manolo Club, whose proceeds have been used to sponsor most of its members in various secondary schools.

Bee keeping clubs earning an income from them do not just get preoccupied by fixing their bee hives in trees in the forests and taking home bucketful of honey, no — the members take care of the forests by planting more trees and guard it against invasion by charcoal burners.

One of the members of Manolo Club, Gertrude Chando said climate change has greatly affected the output of honey, saying weather changes affect life of honey bees, which tend to run away when it’s too cold or too hot.

“When it rains heavily, as it did this year, we were affected much as we did not manage to harvest the way our buyers want,” she said. “This year, it’s not promising due to weather as it has been too cold.”

Mzimba District’s senior forest officer, Dorothy Shaba applauds the bee keeping farmers for conserving trees in the forests, while reminding that once they cut down the trees wantonly, the bees won’t be able to find flowers and their businesses would be affected.

Shaba said the integration of beekeeping with forest restoration efforts has created a win-win situation as the communities are motivated to protect forests as they directly benefit from the resources.

Nkhata attested to this saying: “I used to cut down a lot of trees in the past to make charcoal enough to earn K30,000 — but these days, from just three beehives where I harvest honey that fills 20 litres, I make over K60,000 as we sale 1 litre at K3,000.”