Camgew

Biodiversity category

CAMEROON

Forests’conservation & Biodiversity

www.camgew.org

This project figured out that apiculture can act as a smart solution to protect forests from bushfires, through the direct involvement of local communities in beekeeping.

Products can display the identity of the place where they were produced. Behind this specific solution lies the culture of proud apiarists who are taking care of their forest, village and people. They are regenerating lives. The identity of this area is now inseparably linked with the precious honey it produces.

Innovation: CAMGEW has discovered that apiculture could create jobs and raise income for people while protecting the forest from fire. When forest people own beehives, they will be no longer willing to burn the forest and if a bushfire occurs, they would act to extinguish it.

Impact: Bushfires are destroying hectares of forest in the North-West Region of Cameroon and apiculture has turned out to be a winning technique to stop the bushfire issue, as testified by the decreasing numbers of fires in the mentioned area. CAMGEW protects forests from bushfires while encouraging the repopulation of insects, crucial for the maintenance of the entire ecosystem. In recent years there has been a high mortality rate of bees and it is estimated that at least 1/3 of the colonies in the world have disappeared.

Mr. Wirsiy Emmanuel, Camgew Director awarded by Ms. Cristina Petracchi, Head of the FAO e-learning Center