Why the bee population is vanishing in Bushenyi District

At a recent session of the Fireplace Conversations, where residents in Bushenyi-Ishaka Municipality in southwestern Uganda gathered to discuss the grim realities of climate change and its impact on agricultural systems, panelists and the general plenary reflected on the dark side of climate change and how it has made it difficult for farmers and players in the agricultural value chains to make breakthroughs.

Wellington Naijuka, a local player in the honey and banana value chain working with Forest Fruit Foods, says climate change is affecting two of their value chains – beekeeping and banana juice production – that are entirely dependent on seasons.

“Climate change has greatly affected biodiversity and this has caused a loss of pollinators in both value chains. Most of the thickets where bees used to build nests from where they would swarm and make new colonies have been destroyed. Now, you put up beehives and they do not colonise them,” he laments.

According to Naijuka, human activity has not only destroyed bee colonies but has also destabilised biodiversity to the extent that some people spray bees with pesticides to exterminate them.

“You go to an area where you would expect that bees would have colonies in tree trunks, disused buildings, and poles and unfortunately, they are not there anymore. As a result, the bee population is very small and continues to decline. Can you imagine we have people who burn bees?” he asks.

One of the apiaries at Forest Fresh Foods in Bushenyi town. PHOTO/ZADOCK AMANYISA

Forest Fruit Foods has eight instruction apiaries, each with an average of 80 colonies or beehives, where farmers are trained and resourced on how to look after bees. Currently, the company is working with 700 households to process honey while offering them technical support.

“We have over 500 colonies in the Greater Bushenyi region. A bee colony is a hive that has a queen. On average it contains 50,000 bees. Non-colonised hives are boxes where the bees have moved out. In recent years, the non-colonised hives have been on the increase,” Naijuka says.

Colonizing is season-specific because every new season bees multiply and go into the hives placed in specific locations that attract them.

“Two years ago, we set up an apiary in a coffee growing area with eucalyptus trees and a swamp. The apiary had 60 beehives but for an entire year none of them was colonized yet swamps normally are sources of mother bee colonies,” Naijuka adds.

The company had to put the bees into the hives one by one, although Naijuka says they are still struggling in that area.

“The African bee has high chances of absconding from a colony but that would not be a problem because you can still trap it from one hive and bring it to another. However, we are increasingly seeing that when the bees move away, we are unable to find them again,” he adds.

When a colony is small, the bees do not have the warmth and working power to build a proper nest. As bees move from one colony to another, they carry with them honey and resources. A smaller colony means the bees will not settle there for long.

James Mujurizi, a retired principal entomologist, bee farmer.

Environmental degradation

James Mujurizi, a retired principal entomologist, is a bee farmer who practices agroforestry in Igambiro Parish in Mitoma district. He is equally worried about the declining population of bees.

“By the time I retired in 2019, we estimated that Bushenyi district had over 3,000 bee colonies. I do not have the current statistics, but I am sure the numbers are low. I attribute the loss to poor agricultural methods like use of chemicals and bad honey harvesting practices. There are some people who enjoy eating bees. They remove the comb and eat the brood,” he says.

Naijuka also lays the blame on climate change saying, “Because of climate change, the crop yields are going down. To increase the yields, farmers are claiming more land in swamps and forests and in the process destroying the natural habitats of bees.”

With erratic rains, the water level in the swamps is going down. However, floods cause the waters to rise and in the process, drown the bees in colonies near those swamps.

Edward Mpeirwe Mpabwa, a member of Bushenyi district local government council, says besides bees, a number of insects like moths, beetles, butterflies, and aphids have been driven away by environmental degradation.

“In the past, while driving through the section of the road in Lwera Swamp, a number of insects would swarm the windshield of the car, overwhelming the washers and wipers. These days, though, one hardly encounters these insects,” he says.

How pesticides kill bees

Cotton farmers in Katerera sub-county in Rubirizi district are now using more pesticides on their farms. The use of pesticides is a death knell to wildlife conservation in the area where bees are used as strong barriers to prevent wild animals from invading the farms adjacent to the neighboring Queen Elizabeth National Park.

“Spraying of pesticides should be done early in the morning or late in the evening when the bees are resting. Bees wake up by 4am but you find farmers spraying their crops at 8am when the bees are already swarming flowers. These pesticides are carried into the beehives leading to the extermination of entire colonies,” Naijuka laments.

Since the worker bees are the ones that pollinate flowers, pesticides have led to their death, thus depriving colonies of the working population that builds hives.

Also, some communities in the region make waragi (local gin) from sugarcane molasses, which attracts bees from their hives. They end up drowning in the waragi.

Can sensitisation save bees?

A 1995 survey conducted by Bushenyi district local government found that ten tonnes of honey were harvested in the district. This indicated a decline in bee colonies in the area, according to the then district principal entomologist, Mujurizi.

“With the survey results in hand, the district embarked on a sensitisation drive of farmers and beekeepers on proper methods of harvesting honey. Our people did not know that bees have a very short lifespan,” Mujurizi says.

Another survey was carried out in 2009 to track the impact of the efforts that the district had employed. The findings showed that honey production had increased to 90 tonnes, with an increase in colonies in different areas.

Crops such as Robusta coffee are not self-pollinated and therefore depend 100 percent on bees and other insects. Without honeybees, the yields will definitely be low.

“Look at the flow of resources and the regulations in the coffee sector. Can these resources and regulations be extended to the protection of bees because they are part of the coffee value chain?” Naijuka asks.

He also calls for an increase in the technologies that aid with the domestication of bees and removing the phobia for bees.

“When we first came to this area, a meeting was held where the villagers were not happy that we were bringing bees to the area. However, domestication of bees can help us not to destroy the natural habitats where they are found,” Naijuka adds.

Most farmers lack information on how to manage bees properly. Forest Fresh Foods is supplying farmers in Greater Bushenyi with beehives to ensure stabilisation of the population.

“We are rearing queen bees in partnership with some development partners so that we supply farmers with already colonised beehives. Our stand is that everyone must take responsibility for protecting Mother Earth,” Naijuka appeals.

Farmers are also being encouraged to build apiaries in the middle of their gardens to attract bees. The Greater Bushenyi region has over 6,000 bee colonies.