Beekeeping and honey production are incentivizing farmers to plant and protect trees on the landslide-prone slopes of Uganda’s Mount Elgon. That's benefiting the local community in many ways.
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00:00The landslide is still fresh. So is this family's horror.
00:06The slope has simply been gone for the last two weeks.
00:09Fortunately, no one was injured.
00:12Still, the landslide was an alarm signal, not for the first time here on eastern Uganda's Mount Elgon.
00:18This really reminds us of the urgency to protect our environment, restore the degraded landscapes,
00:26but most importantly, empower farmers to ensure that the agriculture they are practicing is sustainable
00:33to reduce the climate-related disasters, but also contribute to their livelihoods.
00:39Local farmers have cut down trees on Mount Elgon to make room for fields.
00:44A quarter of the forest on the extinct volcano slope has been lost over the years,
00:49even though a large part of the area is actually a nature reserve.
00:53The consequences? Erosion and damage to the ecosystem.
00:58The NGO Bees and Trees wants to reverse the trend.
01:02Founder Stephen Bright-Sakwa has brought seedlings of native trees, free of charge.
01:08The NGO is mainly financed by donations. Beehives are also given away.
01:13A reason to be happy, because everyone benefits, the people and the environment.
01:21What we are doing is to motivate farmers to reintegrate trees in their farms.
01:27And how are we doing this?
01:29We fundraise, give them modern beehives, as well as trees which act as forage for the bees.
01:37Now the bees are an incentive for the farmers to plant the trees,
01:43because they know for the bees to make honey, they need nectar,
01:48as well as pollen from the flowers planted by the trees.
01:52It is almost a day-to-day activity to do.
01:56You can do it even if you have little capital.
02:00Indirectly, the new trees will help to earn an additional income.
02:05Sakwa wants to convey this to the villagers.
02:08A change in mentality compared to the mindset that led to the environmental crisis.
02:13The consequences of landslides can be seen everywhere.
02:16In future, the new trees should help to better hold the earth in place.
02:21When we plant these trees, they play a role of binding soils together.
02:26We plant the trees and we don't just plant them, we grow them, we monitor them, we track them,
02:32we map each and every tree that we plant.
02:35Landslides often occur during heavy rains.
02:38The deadliest incident was in 2010.
02:41The Nametsi slide claimed the lives of more than 300 people.
02:45Many people lost their homes and fields back then,
02:49and some of those affected are still waiting for help.
02:55For those who are living downwards here,
02:58their lands have gone, if they can give some help of land, of housing.
03:04I would be very grateful if they give me another place to be.
03:10The soil on Mount Elgon contains a lot of clay and therefore absorbs a lot of water.
03:16Together with deforestation, this is a fatal combination.
03:20So two things come to play.
03:22The natural parameters, or the so-called nature of the slopes,
03:27but also the pressure that comes from the communities themselves.
03:31Now, everything is supposed to get better with the help of bees.
03:35Around 60 households in the village of Ukukiri and the surrounding region have started beekeeping.
03:41They are being trained by bees and trees and supported with equipment free of charge.
03:46What an adventure.
03:48Putting on a protective suit for the first time,
03:51or calming the bees with a special smoke in the middle of the forest.
03:55The bees come and get the nectar or the honey,
03:58the nectar which they go and start forming the honey.
04:02So those things, the trees and the bees go hand in hand.
04:06Without a tree, you can't have a bee.
04:09The will to protect the forest is growing,
04:12to the extent that families can make a better living from beekeeping.
04:15Stephen Bright-Sakwa's NGO also helps them with marketing.
04:20We buy the honey from them, add value and sell to final consumers.
04:26The market price for honey at farm gates is 18,000 shillings, Uganda shillings.
04:35Yes, but for us we buy it from farmers at 25,000.
04:40So that gives them another incentive and a motivation.
04:45We need to change the mindset.
04:47We have to support these local communities to appreciate their own environment first
04:52and then give them the interventions that really they can appreciate and take on,
04:59that even beyond the intervention period, they can sustain them into the future.
05:05More than 5,000 trees have been reforested on Mount Elgon in the past two years.
05:11That's not much compared to what was lost, but at least it's a start.
05:16For more UN videos visit www.un.org