Project Detail

Rehabiltate and conserve agrobiodiversity through increase number of wild and honey bee hives in mountain areas of Vakhsh and Hazrati-Shokh ridges

Bees make tremendous contribution to important function of biosphere, especially to a flower flora, thereby playing essential role in provision of stability within plant species. Conservation of a number and diversity of spine-off creatures is of a high priority which has a global ecological value. Protection and conservation of bees is key issue for population of hilly and mountain areas of Vakhsh range, where degradation of ecosystems progressively rising due to the man?s impact. Destroyed vegetation surfaces used to hold mountain slopes contributed to further emerge of land degradation and erosion.
One of the important components of biocenosis is wild bees. There are 800 various bee species known and recorded in the country. The main kernel among them is solitary bees having old pre-palaearctic and palaearctic origination. From the total number of existing species, above 150 types are considered endemic and sub-endemic. The mountain reliefs of target area mainly describe the strong eroded partitions, ravines and gullies, which creates suitable conditions for bee farming and development. However, as a result of excessive land ploughing, environment pollution, infrastructure construction and emerge of landmines destroyed the habitat and forced bee colonies fled.
Reconstructed building structures and replaced old wooden construction materials (covered with reeds and beard grass) into brick walls, concrete, iron and asbestos badly hampered nesting of various bee colonies including wild and endemic species. Such situation is prevailed within Vakhksh range. Pasturelands are overgrazed, poorly land rotation and management of biodiversity decreased the number of bee colonies in the target area. The biodiversity is badly deteriorated due to lack of knowledge, low level of civic ecological education and excessive man?s impact. Massive land cleaning from weeds and flowers by local community reduced bees of nutrition sources. Inadequate use of pesticides and chemicals contributed to the loss of bee colonies, which leads to the further degradation in the target areas. Gene-fund of various bee species is broken and their numbers are twice reduced.
Through a practical way of promoting and increasing conservation measures of bees, the project has intention to erect artificial bee nests (bee houses) in wild natural zones as well as within agro-ecosystems, i.e. close to the agricultural crops which need for pollination. There are 20 types of bees known that dwell in artificial nests, in the stem of woods and grasses (caulis). Today, agriculture crops within target area are partially pollinated by honeybees keep in hands of local communities, however their number are insufficient even for minimum pollination which is far below the normal requirements. The wild bees play very crucial role in the process of seed foundation of various leguminous plants, such as Lucerne (alfa-alfa), which has a special value in the country where majority people in rural mountain areas are engaged with cattle farming and fodder production. Plantation and use of lucerne for crop rotation is very limited in rural areas due to unavailability of quality seeds and the high prices. Insufficient number of natural pollinators in the target area resulted in low fodder production. Rehabilitation of nesting environment and availability of pollinators ? wild bees ? in the target areas will greatly contribute in increase of agriculture crops, seeds and fodder productions for 10-20 times more.

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Project Snapshot

Grantee:

NGO 'Subhi Tandurusti'

Country:

Tajikistan

Area Of Work:

Biodiversity

Operational Phase:

OP4 - Y3 (Jul 09 - Jun 10)

Grant Amount:

US$ 15,000.00

Co-Financing Cash:

US$ 5,845.00

Co-Financing in-Kind:

US$ 9,155.00

Project Number:

TJK/SGP/OP4/Y3/CORE/2010/05

Start Date:

6/2010

End Date:

12/2011

Status:

Satisfactorily Completed

Project Characteristics and Results

Inovative Financial Mechanisms

At whole, implementation of the project was possible due to an innovative and unifying financial approach and our ability to translate importance of bee?s biodiversity conservation to the involved parties. Besides a generous support of GEF SGP, this approach helped us to consolidate services, financial and material resources of concerned communities, administration of Jamoat, district?s agriculture, forestry and nature protection offices and farmers of farm association ?Balkhiyon?. Their input was provided in the following forms: issue of land assigned for project needs; voluntary labor to manufacture and fix the bee nests, to cultivate the land; provision of garden tools, honey bee families and alfalfa seeds; provision of food for workers, transportation, mobile communication, access to internet and the training. In the context of ecological business this is the first experience of such type in the area. During this and the years to come, investing in the ecosystems service will enable farmers to gain more profit that may presumably exceed earnings they usually can gain by farming traditionally. Diversified and increased earning possibility through biodiversity conservation is also important to soften the risks the farmer may suffer due to climatic and human dependant abnormalities.

Gender Focus

Commonly, people in the whole region live under notions of patriarchal society. In the local setup, mostly men formally own and produce decisions over management of land and production resources. In practice, women perform and are responsible for the most part of farm and household activities. But they are not in the position to enjoy that broad freedom the men part does. The participation of community women was at most appreciated in each of our actions. Despite planned 10 women to come for training sessions, for some health and social reasons, only five could attend. Within village gatherings, the discussions were wormed up with active interference of community women, where their ways of contribution in project implementation was identified. As a rule, community women and children are in charge to supply the firewood to their homesteads. Going to adjacent woods and gardens to collect sticks, branches and grazing livestock, they naturally made mach more useful observations on wild bees. During our discussions this was notable contribution of them to share their knowledge on where one may observe bees and their types and behavior. Also felt being in charge for protection of bees, women whom we contacted were agree to assist in producing handmade nests, moreover to allocate them on sites they were recommended. To discompromise the notion that bee keeping is primarily the job of the men, we let several women to receive training and equipped them with essential sets for startup bee keeping.

Policy Impact

In our activities we were guided by the international and national regulating frameworks providing a firm inter linkage and coordination of efforts for conservation of the biodiversity in the local and global scale. The necessities of biodiversity conservation are essentially reflected in the UN Convention on Biodiversity and Governments ?Report on the State of Environment?.

Significant Participation of Indigenous Peoples

Population of Jamoati Baljuvon comprise of people with solely homogenous ethnical and historical backgrounds. These are members of Kuhistoni ethnic Tajik group, speaking a distinctive southern dialect of Tojiki. They are able to recall on their very early historical and cultural backgrounds. In different forms, our project has reached over 250 indigenous people covering 20 to 50% of population in the Jamoat?s five villages. In the earlier soviet times local people were at once put under pressure of so called collectivization. This undermined total disturbance of livelihoods followed by forced resettlement into far and unknown lowland environments caused many lives and social loses. Later all suffered destructive effects of collapse of Soviets and devastating civil war. Many years took for resettlement into indigenous mountain environments, but now their establishment is pressured by poverty and forced long term labor migration into Russia. Saying it in general terms, these people have accumulated unique indigenous knowledge on management of local resources, based on the local seasonal trends and other conditions. In the stages of our project implementation we have witnessed, good knowledge examples in aspects of honey bee keeping, rain-fed cropping and orchard development.

Notable Community Participation

Project has acted in the following villages of Jamoati Baljuvon, namely in Dashtimaidon, Khujaxitoboni, Dehbul, Girbas, Olichadara. Members of these village communities took part in the project activities, scope of which included discussion rounds and decisions making, participation in seminars, performing outreach to wider number of people in their villages, design and manufacturing of bee nests and selection and distribution beehives. Elderly people in community gatherings have taken a central place in recalling of the earlier state of wild bee?s habitats in their areas. They shared their knowledge and views on beneficial role of wild bees and their perceptions of new approaches in conservation of bio diversity.

Emphasis on Sustainable Livelihoods

The agroecological balance of inhabited but still natural mountainous areas in Jamoati Baljuvon are situated in very strong dependence from the pollination function of bee species. The success of people?s livelihood stays with this in a close relation too. Bees help to sustain agroecological system by pollinating herbs, bushes and trees. If not pollinated they can bring very few fruits or seeds, it would be very difficult to plants recover or to propagate wider in the area. Now let us pretend a situation where this all come true. What would people?s living rely on at that time, when their being depends almost solely on the volumes of wild fruits collected (usually of dogrose, wild cherries, walnuts, hawthorn, medicinal herbs), volume of fruits from their orchards and volume of milk and meats received from the solely herbivore cattle, sheep and goats. In the same view the mitigation of effects of climate change is seen as a direct aim in our activities. In our example, we advocated for cultivation of alfalfa with the multiple purpose. Firstly it is necessary to provide the bee populations with a food source. Secondly, and more essential is to provide erosion-prone soils with permanent cover to prevent disruption by erratic rains and provide soil with moisture in times of dry periods. At last this provides cheap and quality alfalfa seeds to the farmers.

Capacity - Building Component

The objectives of the project were intended on building capacity of the groups that are directly benefiting from the project activities (50 farmers and community members), as well as statesmen from the local offices of agriculture, nature protection and forestry, our scientific counterparts from the research institute of Zoology and Parasitology of Academy of Sciences RT. The project has provided two training sessions to 50 farmers in the last summer and autumn. The farmers have received advanced knowledge on the biology of bees and they role in agriculture. They also know the methods to recreate the population of wild bees.With use of an unified approach the project has taught communities and farmers how to effectively mobilize a collective effort in planning and implementation of environmentally concerned actions. In the face of raising biodiversity concerns, the project has helped build up capacity of our NGO itself. During passed project stages we learned a lot and are ready to expand the gained experiences within new areas. It helps us to advocate for new issues of the area?s biodiversity and tackle further problems.

Project sustainability

Upon completion, the project results will be sustainable as the project has high potential to renew access of local communities to self-employment, source of income and better livelihood. The understanding about sustainable use of biodiversity and its conservation among local farmers and community residents increased and improved. Some 50 local farmers and community residents will benefit from the project realization through rehabilitation of land production and development. The availability and number of artificial nests and honey beehives within target areas will allow local farmers and community residents to grow various plants, which were not grown in the past or production level was low, and receive very high yields, thereby increase food security and agriculture crop production in rural areas. The honey production will provide additional source of income for rural households and plus this will have a great impact on the rehabilitation and conservation of mountain and forest ecosystems, including pastureland and fruit/ forest orchards. The financial sustainability of the project is tangible and will be ensured by local farmers in following ways: - Production and realization of pure honey; - Bee farming and realization of honey beehives to other local farmers; - Production and marketing of quality Lucerne seeds in the local areas; - Production and marketing of fodder; - Demonstration of cheap way to rehabilitate biodiversity and increase production; During project implementation the local farmers and community residents will be equipped with guidebooks where all key recommendations and best practices on conservation of biodiversity of wild and honeybees are recorded in a simple and practical way. The district department of agriculture will deploy agronomist for consultation. The consultant will provide services to the local farmers and community residents during and after project implementation. The district administration will provide technical and legal assistance on allocating more lands for expansion of the project activities in other areas of target zone. The local authority (Jamoat leadership) will ensure and mobilize local community residents on fodder production and harvest collection.

Promoting Public Awareness of Global Environment

With the project effort, over 250 people have become aware on the environmental issues on the global, down to country and local levels. In a short hand people have learned on such a authoritative bodies as for example UNEP, UN Convention on Biodiversity Conservation and the national environmental strategies. Information on the project objectives and the activities were transferred with help of Outreach among the village inhabitants. There is a verbal agreement with the local holder of information media ??Navidi Baljuvon? on issuing newspaper articles about the project results and the necessities of biodiversity conservation.

Project Results

>500 units of artificial nests constructed and placed in the area of 120 ha land including 20 ha Lucerne.
>Number of artificial nests increased up to 1,000 units within 1 year of project operation;
>100 honey beehives procured and handed to 50 local farmers;
>2,500 kg of honey produced from 10 beehives in a year, 25 kg / beehive;
>50 local farmers including 10 women, and 150 persons engaged in project and improved their knowledge and raise their awareness on protection and conservation of biodiversity;
>Lucerne planted in 20 ha land; seed and fodder production (Lucerne) increased up to 20% (100 kg seeds per hectare)
>Agriculture crops production increased in 100 ha land up to 20%;

Indicators:
Constructed and placed 500 units of artificial nests;
120 ha land of various plants (herbs, etc) including 20 ha land of Lucerne, rehabilitated by pollinators;
Number of artificial nests reached 1,000 units in one year;
100 honey beehives procured and distributed among 50 local farmers;
2,500 kg of pure honey produced and realized in local markets;
50 local farmers including 10 women, and 150 community residents provided with seminars (5 courses), information and education materials on sustainable use and conservation of biodiversity.
Seed and fodder production increased by 15%-20%;

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