The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) work with conservancies and other protected areas to support social projects that support communities living with wildlife and conservation projects. In April 2021, the WWF donated 100 bee hives, metallic stands, 2 honey processors, and chain-link material for fencing, 2 bee catchers and 20 harvesting suits. The Ol Kinyei conservancy Warden and Community Liaison Person selected 9 Women/youth groups who received 11 beehives to start beekeeping and honey production around the Ol Kinyei conservancy.
The bee keeping project is envisioned to save the local communities as much as $200.US per year per family in re- current expenses.
We are delighted that this project has expanded to Amboseli with contributions to the Olanti & Iltuleta communities by The Guardian Project – Rita & Jeff Rayman of 2 bee-keeping start-ups with 20 hives, 4 suits, smokers and training, as well as well as container farming training to provide easy access to nutritious greens without needing farmland. The Guardian Project has also funded the seeds and gunny sacs to start kitchen nurseries in the two communities.
The objective of the project was to empower the youth and women, raise conservation awareness while generating an alternative income for the group, improve livelihood, and conserve bees. The bee keeping project aims to work with youth & women groups around the conservancies we are involved in, as the youth have the highest unemployment and the women are more vulnerable as they need to support their families with limited resources. The donation received from WWF supports the long-term goals of Gamewatchers Safaris & Ol Kinyei conservancy for sustainability, wildlife conservation, habitat
protection and improving community livelihoods. The project is focused on sustainable, scalable development that empowers an ever-increasing number of local communities with income-generation and food security.
The conservancy management teams in Ol kinyei and Selenkay supervised the distribution, installation of beehives and conducted an introduction to
modern bee keeping to the groups. We continues to make follow ups to ensure the project implementation is a success and boosts livelihood. Besides, to ensure success and sustainability of the project, the youth/women groups signed commitment agreement and will be required to:
- Run the beekeeping project
- Undertake a bee keeping and hive management training
- Shall raise the beehives’ stands above the ground to minimize ants and honey badgers attacks
- Manage the beehives, honey harvesting, process the honey, purchase honey jars and packaging
- Honey selling, first priority given to Gamewatchers Safaris & Porini Safari Camps
- Write quarterly reports for updates to Gamewatchers/Porini/Ol Kinyei Conservancy
- Group members shall provide security to the beehives
- The trained youth/women shall become Trainers Of Trainers (TOT) to develop capacity in bee keeping
