Bees Business Tackles Climate Change and Food Security in Ethiopia

(14 October 2011, Nairobi)--For Haleka Shishay, being unemployed left him feeling desperate. A resident of the Tahtai Maichew district in Ethiopia's Tigray region, Shishay used to travel during the rainy season to find seasonal work. That was before bees came into his life. Today, Shishay, 25, is the proud owner of bee hives that now give him a regular income.

Shishay is one of 600 unemployed youth who have been trained in the bee business by the Climate Change Adaptation and Development Initiative (CC DARE), jointly implemented by UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and UN Development Programme (UNDP).

The initiative seeks to create opportunities for integrating climate change adaptation projects among communities in Sub-Saharan countries and Small Island Developing States.

"I used to migrate during the rainy season to western Tigray to look for seasonal work, or I would cut trees from the forests to sell in the nearby town for firewood or construction material. Now I have gained new skills and tools for making bee hives and splitting bee colonies thanks to the CC DARE project," he says proudly.

In an effort to address climate change impacts and food insecurity in Ethiopia, CC DARE assisted the country with a timely-targeted bee farming project called Local Solutions for the Challenge of Unemployment and Food Insecurity based on Adaptation to Climate Change. The one-year project focused on bee-keeping and the planting of trees and shrubs that serve the purpose to tackle climate change impacts and give work to farmers and unemployed youth. 

Bee farming is not only a source of employment but has become a viable long-term solution for addressing the food crisis in Ethiopia. The drought that has ravaged the Horn of Africa has not spared Ethiopia, a country where over 85 percent of people depend on agriculture. While bee-keeping has historically been one of the most important income-generating activities in the region, land degradation and climate change has threatened the business as never before. 

The bee business can be a complex enterprise. The insects are the Earth's chief pollinators and most crops which provide global food security are bee-pollinated. Of the 100 crop species that provide 90 percent of the world's food, over 70 are pollinated by bees. FULL ARTICLE AT UNEP »

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