Creating a buzz

During a recent trip to the Dakatcha Woodlands, the A Rocha Kenya team discovered many charcoal kilns. With COVID-19 hitting the local economy hard and people losing their jobs, the pace of forest destruction has picked up. So A Rocha Kenya is working with farmers across the region, equipping them with beehives and training as an alternative source of income. Each litre of honey can be sold for around KSh 1,000 (about £8), enabling community members to support their families without having to rely on environmentally destructive practices such as illegal logging.

Thanks to generous donations made through Gifts with a Difference, 22 beehives have already been purchased to support the families of some of our ASSETS beneficiaries. And the A Rocha Kenya team are encouraged that many will soon be harvesting honey!

The families are given beekeeping training: the basic entrepreneurial skills to increase their income and reduce their dependence on unsustainable forest products. They are also taught about the conservation value of the forest and its rich diversity of life. The Arabuko-Sokoke Forest and Dakatcha Woodlands are both remnants of a dry coastal forest that once stretched from Somalia to Mozambique and are home to Globally Endangered wildlife such as the Sokoke Scops Owl Otus ireneae, Clarke’s Weaver Ploceus golandi and Golden-rumped Elephant-shrew Rhynchocyon chrysopygus.

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The latest beekeeping training session, carried out pre-COVID.