By Josephine Crouch | Development Operations Manager
In a village, on the edge of the mountain forests of Tangkit, Markus is planting ‘bridal tear’ creeper plants. With their bright pink flowers, they attract just what Markus wanted, itama honeybees. These flowers, along with the calliandra plants he also plants provide the perfect food source for the honeybees that will move into their new hive. In November, Markus and 39 others from 6 villages around the Tangkit hamlet joined Planet Indonesia in a training workshop to learn about itama honeybee cultivation. Community members learned how to source bees, provide for them, harvest honey, and market it.
The team then demonstrated how to build an itama honeybee hive using wooden logs and simple materials. All those that were interested in pursuing this – including Markus – stayed and built their own beehives. The villages now have 9 more completed hive boxes with more in the works as follow-up trainings with community heads continue.
There is huge potential for this biodiversity-based economy, and it is one we champion. It not only helps with food security, nutrition - the hives also produce pollen, a superfood - and regenerative livelihoods for communities, but it also benefits the environment through pollination generating further ecosystem services for people and wildlife. We will continue to support Markus through his journey to becoming a beekeeper. Thank you for your donation.
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