Nyiratuza Madeleine
Other projects
11 Jun 2014
Strengthening the Capacity of Local Farmers to Reduce Conflicts Between them and the Managers of the Gishwati Forest Reserve, Rwanda
This project aims at supporting local farmers to start a beekeeping business that will generate income to improve local livelihoods, to fence farms adjacent to the forest to reduce illegal cattle grazing and to progressively reduce maize crop adjacent to the forest in order to mitigate crop raiding.
Crop raiding and illegal cattle grazing are main issues that undermine the conservation of Gishwati Forest Reserve in Rwanda. These issues create conflicts between the forest managers and local farmers. FHA designed a beekeeping project to support local farmers grouped in a cooperative called JYAMBERE to generate income to fence their ranches to reduce illegal cattle grazing and to progressively replace maize crop by ranches and potatoes in order to reduce crop raiding.
Cooperative members trying the bee suits.
The one-year project includes trainings in beekeeping, provision of equipment, installing beehives, caring for hives and bees, monitoring and evaluation. JYAMBERE has 83 members. 3 beekeepers from three local beekeeping cooperatives and one person from the union of beekeeping cooperatives in the region (UNICOAPIGI) will train 15 of these members in modern beekeeping for 10 days during the second month of the project. During the third month, these 15 trained people will train other members of JYAMBERE in teams during 5 days.
Trainees learning how to put on Bee suits and gloves and when they are needed
UNICOAPIGI will assist JYAMBERE cooperative to buy equipment and to settle the beehives in sites, and will orient the cooperative in all activities related to honey and caring for bees and hives during the whole life of the project. Beehives will be bought during the fourth month of the project and be installed during the 5th month.
FHA and UNICOAPIGI will do monitoring and evaluation. The monitoring will be done through the whole cycle of the project from month one to month12. Partial evaluations will be done at the end of training of trainers, at the end of training of the members of the cooperative and after installing the beehives. The final project evaluation will be done and at the end of the project during the 12th month. FHA will technically assist JYAMBERE to adhere to UNICOAPIGI and this cooperative will sell honey to this union.
We believe that this project will be sustainable because with the increase of farmers’ revenue, they will be able to buy more beehives and extend the activity around the forest. Also FHA will continue to work closely with JYAMBERE to ensure that the income from beekeeping is mainly spent on solving crop raiding and illegal cattle grazing issues. This work will benefit both local people and the forest because it will help protecting the forest and proliferation of pollinators while injecting the revenue in local economy.