Movement for conserving bees in the Western Ghats

I hope your all are doing well, and must have spared some of your time from your busy schedule toread our previous report. In our previous report we tried to narrate a story about one of our team member and his painstaking efforts for rearing stingless bees. We at AERF, always try to come up with interesting and unique ways to engage local communities to conserve biodiversity and forests in different landscapes.

In this report I’ll throw some more light on another unique approach to engage local communities in the Mangroves Conservation Process.

Yes, you read it right! We have approached local communities who are dependent on, and living near the “Mangrove Forests”.

A Mangrove is an ecosystem that is permanently or periodically flooded with water. It is distinguished from the terrestrial ecosystem by the composition of species that are highly adapted to the wetland. Mangroves are a type of wetland ecosystem, established along estuaries and coastlines in the interface between land and sea, restricted to tropical and subtropical regions. As per Global Forest Assessment, 2020, 113 countries have Mangrove forests covering an estimated 14.79 million hectares. The largest Mangrove area is reported in Asia (5.55 million ha.), followed by Africa (3.24 million ha.), North and Central America (2.27 million ha.), and South America (2.13 million ha.). India with a long coastline of about 7516.6 km, including the island territories has a mangrove cover around 4992 sq.km, which equals 0.15% of the country’s total geographical area. This unique and salt tolerant ecosystem provide natural infrastructure to help protect nearby areas by reducing erosion and absorbing storm surge impacts during extreme weather events such as hurricanes and tsunamis. Their dens and entangled root system help bind and build soil. The above-ground roots slows down the water flow and encourage sediment deposits that reduce coastal erosion. These complex root systems also act as natural filters to separate nitrates, phosphates and other pollutants from the water, improving the water quality flowing from the rivers and stream into the estuarine and ocean environment. In addition to this, mangrove ecosystems are considered as major carbon sequesters throughout the globe.

Even after such valuable and irreplaceable ecosystem services, in most countries, this relic ecosystem face constant pressure due to increasing human population is coastal areas and the rising demand for land, timber, fodder, fuel-wood and other non-timber forest produce. In our study area, most of the mangrove forest is owned and protected by the Indian Government. But, there are some mangrove lands which are privately owned. Also, the adjoining land of these mangrove forest is affected by the salt water. The saltwater affected privately owned lands were used to be productive rice fields for many local community members. But, due to salt water incursion and spread of mangrove saplings/seeds, these lands became unproductive and unfavorable for farming.

The situation have become extremely serious because of lack of awareness and knowledge about- the importance of mangroves, the government rules and regulations regarding mangrove conservation and benefits from mangrove conservation. This has forced the local communities to develop a negative image for this unique ecosystem.

Considering the importance of the situation, AERF team has reached out to these communities. After analyzing the on-ground situation, we have decided to start some of our conservation initiatives to spread awareness amongst the local communities and involve them in the conservation of mangroves. While exploring this amazing landscape and ecosystem, we came across several beehives of Stingless bees in the bark of mangrove tree species. Also, we have observed many individuals foraging on the flowers of mangrove trees. According to our pilot observations, the number of individuals of Stingless bees was far greater as compared to any other pollinating insects, on multiple sites.

Considering this as a pilot and our past experience/knowledge about the stingless bees, we decided to start bee rearing campaign for stingless bees for the communities living near to the mangrove forests. As part of this initiative we have identified and convinced around 20 local community members who will help us rearing the stingless bees. Also, we are arranging multiple awareness sessions and training sessions regarding the importance of stingless bees and how to rear them.

In upcoming days, we will be targeting multiple community members and mangrove areas to setup at least 20 bee boxes of stingless bees. In addition to this we are also looking forward to train 20 local people who will be our bee champions for the conservation of bees and mangroves in this region of India. This initiative will definitely help to increase pollination among the mangrove ecosystem as well as surrounding farms, orchards and land forest. And in long run it can become alternate income generating opportunities for many farmers living near mangroves.

As this won’t be possible without your help, I would like to hubly request all our donors to keep supporting this great cause.

Thanks a lot supporter once again.  

Dear Supporter,

I am trying to narrate a story of painstaking efforts made by our team members in rearing stingless bees so that we are able to sustain their colony and understand how they behave in an artificial environment ( bee box) in the last quarter.

The word “honeybee” conjures up images of a swarm of bees attacking and stinging people, and popular media has further fuelled the fear associated with bees through striking imageries. However, in reality, bees play an extremely important role in maintaining the functionalities of the ecosystems that they are a part of, pollinating a variety of crop plants and proving to be an important component of food security for humans.

India has four species of indigenous honey bees – Apis cerana indica, Apis dorsata, Apis florea, and Tetragonula iridipennis, i.e., the Indian stingless bee or Dammar bee. Apis cerana has been the most commonly reared species in the Indian beekeeping, i.e., apiculture sector. However, the demand and scope for stingless beekeeping has been increasing in the recent years. Also known as meliponiculture, stingless beekeeping is a sustainable activity that entails rearing bees to produce valuable products such as honey, propolis, pollen, and wax and increase the pollination and productivity of several economically important crops. Stingless bees have a sting that is non-functional, and it became as such during the evolution of this sub-group. This makes these bees less offensive and easier to rear than normal Apis bees and also suitable pollinators for crops cultivated in human-inhabited areas. Stingless bee colonies are also naturally long-lived. Moreover, the stingless bee honey is sold at higher market prices than honey from Apis bees. All these traits make stingless beekeeping a more economically attractive alternative to traditional beekeeping, as well as an effective sustainable livelihood option.

The Applied Environmental Research Foundation, an environmental NGO in Pune, has recognized the importance of sustainable beekeeping and its beneficial effects for both ecology and local livelihoods, and in order to learn more about stingless beekeeping, one of our team members, Mr Pranav Panvalkar, met Mr. Milind Yadav at Matrumandir farm at Ozare in March 2021. Mr. Yadav has extensive experience in beekeeping for the last 20 years. In January 2022, he transferred an Apis cerana colony to the bee box at Matrumandir farm and that is when Mr. Pranav re-established contact with him. Mr Yadav had one Apis cerana bee box and 15-18 stingless bee boxes at the farm at the time, and he had been working in stingless beekeeping for the last 2-3 years. Mr. Pranav decided to buy a box of stingless bees as a pilot attempt at rearing them after listening to Mr. Yadav’s experience.

The colony was established two months before Mr. Pranav bought the bee box, and the main task was to observe whether the worker bees collect pollen and nectar and remove the waste material from the box.

After this experience of rearing one bee box, Mr. Pranav decided to buy another stingless bee box. An existing stingless bee colony in Mr. Pranav’s vicinity was transferred to a new bee box, and Mr Pranav started rearing this colony.

The bee box had a simple structure: a 7 inch round PVC pipe of an approximate length of 14 inches. The ends of the pipe were covered using a wooden plate, and the pipe itself was divided with a wooden plate into two compartments, a brood compartment and a honey storage compartment. With this arrangement, the honey can be harvested from the honey storage compartment without disturbing the brood compartment.

During his observations, Mr. Pranav noted that stingless bees store and prepare their hive in a specific manner. Pollen is stored in the first part of the hive that is prepared during the hive construction, and then the bees search for a secure place for laying eggs, while in the remaining area, they store honey. In order to establish a colony in a new bee box, the brood area, which is yellowish white in colour containing rounded eggs, is collected. Along with this, a very small amount of pollen and honey is also added to the bee box. This is a quick procedure and does not disturb the bee colony. Then, the entire hive area is covered with soil or any powder to remove the smell of the old hive. Since the queen bee is already inside the bee box, all the worker bees also move inside the bee box. After this, the bee box needs to be kept at the same place so that all the bees get familiar with it. After 2–3 days, the bee box can be shifted at a suitable place at night.

There are two important differences in stingless bee and Apis cerana bee keeping, which Mr. Pranav noted during his experience of beekeeping. The first difference was that stingless bees did not show absconding behaviour during one year of his experience. Absconding is the term used when all of the bees, including the queen bee, completely leave the hive due to various reasons such as food scarcity, disturbances like loud noises and overheating, parasites, or predators. Other stingless beekeepers have also corroborated Mr. Pranav’s observations in this regard. The second important advantage of stingless bees is that they are very low maintenance, and beekeepers do not need to invest a lot of time in cleaning and maintaining the colony.

Since March 2022, Mr. Pranav has harvested four stingless bee colonies, and successfully shifted them to different bee boxes, where each of the individual colonies are thriving. For the first two bee colonies, Mr. Pranav assisted Mr. Yadav, and after this experience, he decided to harvest a new colony on his own. Mr. Pranav harvested his first colony of stingless bees in August 2022 in a wooden box. The box was made up of two parts, and plywood was used to separate one part from the other. Mr. Pranav was apprehensive about the survival of the colony during the month of August, since it was monsoon and there were very few flowering plants for the bees to collect nectar from, however, the colony survived successfully and that boosted his confidence in harvesting a colony on his own. He followed it up with harvesting one more stingless bee colony in December 2022, which he also was able to successfully shift into a wooden bee box.

          In the upcoming season, Mr. Pranav has planned to harvest ten more stingless bee colonies and is trying to prepare a vertical model of the PVC pipe bee box for this endeavour.      

While it could be boring to read this progress report on activities, for us these efforts has provided an important learning- we need to be persistent and patient with our efforts if we really wish to preserve wonders of nature by understanding their behaviour.

Thanks for your understanding.

Akshay