By Joel Phiri

Mzimba, August 4, Mana: When Blasco Nkhata, 51, of John Chumia Village in Traditional Authority (TA) Kabunduli in Nkhata Bay decided to call it time on his borehole drilling business in 2012 in Salima, he decided to go back home to occupy the house that had been left idle by his late parents.

“I was owning Mazi Drilling Company and was based in Salima. But when the machinery worn out and I had no funds to continue running the business, I just decided to relocate to my home village.

“My relocation was partly because my parents had all passed on and the house was lying unoccupied in Nkhata Bay. I decided to come and occupy it,” he said.

Now back home, Nkhata had no readily available works to do to keep going hence having Movwe Forest Reserve just behind his house, the first thought that came to mind was venturing into the making business.

“I recall that back in the 1980s when I was doing my secondary school at Lwazi Malawi College of Distance of education (MCDE), some forests in the district suffered greatly at our merciless hands as we were into serious charcoal burning and selling. I paid my tuition using money made from burning charcoal and selling,” Nkhata reminisces.

So, when all the shove came to a push in pursuit of what to do to survive financially, the only business, he could think of was that of felling trees and making charcoal. But, just at a time, he thought of starting cutting trees for charcoal, something happened that changed his course of action.

Modern Cooking for Healthy Forests (MCFHF) came around the same time and introduced Bee keeping to some communities in Nkhatabay.

Nkhata and colleagues embraced the idea and formed Movya Beekeeping Club.

According to him, they thought about climate change-induced disasters and changes in weather patterns and that thought alone influenced his change of heart and they had to give beekeeping a chance.

This is how Movya Beekeeping Club was established.

“Having realised the consequences of deforestation on our everyday livelihood such as floods and unpredictable rainfall patterns, we decided to guard against charcoal burning. We thus opted for bee keeping and now we don’t regret,” Nkhata explained, a leader of Movwe Beekeeping Club which has 26 members.

The Club has 84 bee hives strewn across Movya forest reserve which covers 20 hectares of land.

Nkhata said as members of the club, they make sure Movya forest was being guarded against invasion by charcoal makers because their honey-making business would be pushed into oblivion if trees become extinct.

So far, since MCFHF came into the district, several bee keeping clubs have emerged and there is Makwezu Youth Club, Kaning’ina Bee keeping Club and Manolo Beekeeping Club in the area of TA Timbiri.

MCHF official, Wezzie Chisenga said Bee keeping provides a sustainable income source and incentivises forest protection and restoration.

All the clubs are working hard to protect forests from where they earn a living from the beehives they pegged in tree branches.

Manolo Bee keeping Club treasurer, Gertrude Chande explained the symbiotic relationship that exist between conserving trees and making money from honeybees.

“Bee keeping farming survives on having trees. Honey Bees feast on flowers found in some trees so we have to protect the trees if we have to sustain our livelihood we earn from beekeeping,” she said.

The benefits of raising honey Bees have been lifesaving.

According to Nkhata, most members of Movya Beekeeping Club have built houses and some have changed the roofs from grass thatched to iron sheets.

“The last harvesting season was in January and we sold honey worth K1.4 million. The same has been the trend in previous years and when we share the profits most members invest in sensible things like housing and starting small-scale businesses to keep them going,” he said.

Nkhata had to reroof his late parents’ house which he found in great ruins.

“It was all because of honey which we sale to traders across the country that it was possible I roofed the house with iron sheets,” he added.

Nkhata said they produce wax candles and mosquito repellents from the honey.

“Honey is serious and profitable business. Instead of desecrating our fast waning forests I would urge those still clinging to felling trees for a living to switch to beekeeping they won’t regret,” Nkhata, a father of two pointed out.

According to member of Makwezu Beekeeping Youth Club from TA Timbiri, Jacob Mhone, they sale the honey they harvest to Manolo Bee keeping Club and the proceeds have been used to sponsor most of its members in various secondary schools.

Bee keeping clubs earning an income from them do not just get preoccupied by fixing their Bee hives in trees in the forests and taking home bucketful of honey, no.  The club members take care of the forests by planting trees. They guard it against invasion by charcoal burners.

One of the members of Manolo Bee keeping Club, Gertrude Chando said climate change has greatly affected the output of honey.

She said weather changes affect life of honeybees which tend to run away when it’s too cold or too hot.

“When it rains heavily as it did this year we were affected much as we did not manage to harvest the way our buyers want. Like in 2022, we harvested over 80 kgs but last year and this year it’s not promising due to weather as it has been too cold,” Chando noted.

District Senior Forest Officer (DFO) for Mzimba, Dorothy Shaba has appealed to farmers involved in Bee keeping to conserve trees in the forests.

Shaba said Bee keeping farming was dependent on trees on whose flowers bees feast and cutting down of trees could result in the total downfall of their enterprises.

“Once you cut down the trees the bees won’t be able to find flowers and your businesses will be affected. So you should conserve forests from where your business in beekeeping gets its life,” she warned.

Shaba said the integration of beekeeping with forest restoration efforts has created a win-win situation.

She said communities are motivated to protect forests as they directly benefit from the resources.

Nkhata concluded that, “I used to fell a lot of trees in the past to make charcoal enough to earn K30,000, these days from just three beehives where I harvest honey filling 20 litres, I make over K60,000 as we sale 1 litre at K3,000.”