Of trees, bees and honey
Bees are important being the most effective pollinators, according to the United Nations. They help in the reproduction of plants, including food crops.
“A world without pollinators would equal to a world without food diversity—no blueberries, coffee, chocolate, cucumbers, and so much more. They also serve as sentinels for emergent environmental risks, signaling the health of local ecosystems,” the United Nations said, underscoring the world’s need for pollinators, such as bees.
With over 80 percent of human food being supplied by plants, the loss of pollinators would lead to “an exponential loss of biodiversity, endangering our ecosystems and our diet,” according to the UN.
Together with moths, flies, wasps, beetles and butterflies, the bees make up the majority of pollinating species, although the bees have a striking diversity as pollinators and pollination systems.
Most of the 25,000 to 30,000 species of bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) are effective pollinators, the UN added.
Honey, the golden liquid
THE bees are particularly loved not just for saving the world, but for providing that thick, golden liquid that they produce—the honey.
Bees produce honey using the nectar of flowering plants that industrious they bring inside their beehive.
This natural sweetener is mixed in tea, coffee, or milk, spread on bread or simply consumed as is.
Health benefits
VARIOUS sources say that natural, raw or unadulterated honey, has many health benefits.
It contains no fiber, fat or protein and is rich in calories and sugar, but can also help fight diabetes.
Medical experts say it is a good source of antioxidants because it contains an array of plant chemicals that act as antioxidant, antibacterial and antifungal.
Honey helps soothe a sore throat and helps cure cough; and it improves the digestive system, too.
Beekeeping
BECAUSE honey can help cure many health problems, it became in demand and with many resorted to “farming” honey bees.
The University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), the country’s premier agriculture learning institution, has been giving online training for beekeeping to educate those who want to boost their farm’s production.
UPLB started the beekeeping training program in 1989 with enrollees for various training courses on beekeeping keep coming to this day.
Although not entirely a new endeavor, honey bee production or honey bee farming, also called beekeeping in the Philippines, was conceived by upland dwellers who have grown tired of “hunting” the hard-to-find beehives in the thick forests.
Some farmers have even grouped together to make honey bee production and distribution as their business, while others resorted to honey bee farming to augment their income.
The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) is helping farmers develop their capacity in honey bee farming, as some agrarian reform beneficiaries’ organizations (ARBOS) have decided to venture into honey production.
Stingless bee honey
IN the study, “Stingless Bees: Their Behavior, Ecology and Evolution,” Christoph Gruter said that stingless bees, also called stingless honey bees or melipones, are a large group of bees comprising the tribe Meliponni.
These bees are closely related to the common honey bees, orchid bees and bumblebees.
The Samahan ng Pagkakaisa sa Pagunlad ng Payanas (SP3) Agricultural Cooperative based in Barangay Payanas in Torrijos town in Marinduque province is one of the ARBOS that is into honey bee farming and honey production using stingless bees as their honey producer.
Likewise, the Anib Agricultural Cooperative in Barangay Bagacay, Buenavista town, also in Marinduque, and the Sikap Agricultural Cooperative in Barangay Bicasbicas, also in Buenavista, are into honey bee production.
Touted to be nature-based and biodiversity-friendly enterprise, honey production is becoming quite popular among upland dwellers and farmers, as well as enterprising Filipinos who found beekeeping a worthwhile enterprise.
Honey bee production
MARGARITA del Mundo, chairman of SP3 Agricultural Cooperative, said the 43-member farmers’ cooperative are active in the stingless bee honey production.
She said each member can produce 15 bottles of 250 grams of honey bee every month that are sold at P250 per bottle.
Primarily, she said the bees are the pollinators of their farm and the honey they produce are value-added.
“In our town of Torrijos, there are many stingless bees. The bees are not dangerous to humans because they do not sting,” del Mundo said in a telephone interview on August 3.
Besides honey, they also produce soap and vinegar from the pollen produced by the bees.
Training
RECELEE RECELLA, Agrarian Reform Program Officer 1 for Village Level Farm Focus Enterprise Development Program, said the SP3 Agricultural Cooperative members were provided a one-week training by UPLB experts under its Beekeeping Program.
The trainees were mostly coconut farmers to boost their know-how and capacity in beekeeping.
In 2010, the Norwegian Mission Alliance Philippines (NMAP), a nongovernment organization, provided them their much-needed training and startup capital—65 stingless bee colonies.
“Since then, the colonies provided by NMAP have already multiplied. As far as DAR is concerned, we are simply providing help by marketing their product,” Recella said.
She said the training provides the farmers the knowledge on the behavior of the stingless bees. “The bees do not want to be disturbed [because] they leave when they feel threatened,” she said in Filipino.
Endangered species
MANY bee species in the wild are already endangered due to various threats. Their population is declining because the forests are devastated by various destructive human activities.
Even in protected areas, bees may not be spared by human activities, said Asean Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) Executive Director Theresa Mundita S. Lim.
Lim told the Businessmirror in an interview via Messenger on August 4 that bees are threatened primarily due to indiscriminate use of chemical pesticides that not only affect harmful pests but important insects, as well, such as bees.
‘Protect the bees’
“NATIVE bees are pollinators that ensure the natural propagation of indigenous trees and vegetation,” Lim, a former director of the Biodiversity Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources said. As such, she said protecting them in the wild is of utmost importance
Other threats to bees are the improper methods of collecting honey and the illegal cutting of trees.
According to Lim, she prefers protecting the wild population of native bees over bee farming in order to get the maximum benefit from the industrious insects.
“If you protect them, they can provide unique tastes of honey from feeding on flowers of narra, lawaan and other indigenous tree species. They also act as natural pollinators and provide sustainable communitybased livelihoods,” she said.
Sustainable practice
LIM said she is not totally against bee farming, as long as it is done “sustainably.”
Those into beekeeping should use native bees that are in semi-captive conditions which can allow the bees to gather their food in surrounding areas with natural vegetation, she said.
“This practice also encourages ‘farmers,’ including their neighbors who are also benefitting from reselling honey products, to adopt biodiversity-friendly planting practices that promote native flowering plants and reduce the use of pesticides.
She warned that introducing exotic bees for honey production may result in the accidental introduction of potentially invasive species, which could affect the local bee populations.