icipe reinvigorates support for the conservation of Kakamega Forest ecosystem

With the support of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe), in partnership with the Kenya Forest Service, have launched the Kakamega Forest Stingless Bee Research Station and Honey Marketplace.

This milestone is remarkable, as it provides the first ever national training facility on stingless bees in Kenya. It also reinvigorates icipe’s support for the conservation of the Kakamega Forest ecosystem.

A UNESCO world heritage site, the Kakamega Forest ecosystem, located about 350km northwest of the Nairobi, Kenya's capital city, is the only tropical rainforest in the country, and the last remnant of the Guineo-Congolian rainforest that once spanned the continent. The forest is an important watershed, and a biodiversity hotspot – a unique sanctuary for many endemic insects, plants and birds. Between 10% –  20% of the animal species found in the forest are nationally unique. Kakamega Forest is also valuable to the communities living around it, as a source of timber, fuelwood, herbal medicines, building materials, food and income, among others.

For more than two decades, icipe has implemented a range of activities around Kakamega Forest, aiming to use insect science to provide alternative income generation options, thus reducing over-reliance and unsutainable exploitation of the ecosystem. Previous icipe activities include promoting the conservation of two medicinal plants, Ocimum kilimandscharicum and Mondia whytei, by supporting communities to grow them on their farms, rather than harvesting them directly from the forest. Through these efforts, a thriving community-based enterprise emerged. Among products that were developed and commercialised is a herbal-based, low-cost mosquito repellent known as Mozigone. A second range of products derived from Ocimum kilimandscharicum, a plant of the mint family, was formulated, packaged and commercialised under the brand name Naturub. This series of balms and ointments is effective for relief from congestion, muscular aches, pains and insect bites. icipe also implemented highly successful initiatives on beekeeping and sericulture, with honey and silk market place established in the region.

Due to these achievements, the government-led ‘Kakamega Forest Strategic Ecosystem Management Plan 2015 – 2040’, recognises icipe as a partner that will help to implement research and development activities, to improve the livelihoods of forest-adjacent communities.

The icipe Kakamega Forest Stingless Bee Research Station and Honey Marketplace, is aligned to the Plan, and it has  four pillars: bee research, capacity building, technology transfer, participatory approaches and livelihood incentives for the community.

icipe and partners will conduct research and innovation activities around beekeeping, the flagship being stingless bees. Also known as meliponines, stingless bees are smaller than honeybees, and as their name implies, they are incapable of stinging. This is because their stingers are highly reduced and cannot be used for defense. But, this understated image of stingless bees belies their immense value, which includes their natural, much sought-after and highly-priced therapeutic products, such as honey, propolis and wax. icipe studies have established that stingless bees are superior and highly efficient pollinators, including on greenhouse horticulture fruit crops.

Since the mid-2000s, icipe has amassed knowledge on this fascinating, important and largely unexplored resource in Africa. The Centre has pioneered meliponiculture, the domestication of stingless bees, with the goal of creating income generation opportunities for communities while conserving and regenerating this mighty resource.

Kakamega Forest is home to 18 out of 23 known stingless bees species in Kenya. In total, the forest has over 243 bee species. Therefore, icipe and partners will also focus on others bee species including honey bees, carpenter bees and solitary bees.

The research will connect indigenous and scientific knowledge, such as the understanding of bee diversity, their biology, strategies for domestication including queen rearing, mass colony production, design and use of improved, optimal hives, ways to enhance bee swarms, boosting bee food resources, and proper bee management practices for diseases, pests and predators. The activities will also include harnessing of bee services such as pollination.

This knowledge will be generated in collaboration with local researchers and community members. It is envisioned that a range of high quality bee products will be commercialised through awareness building and training of community members, and holistic, inclusive value chains: honey, beeswax, royal jelly, propolis, beebread and bee venom.

In particular, icipe will use the facility to advance efforts to establish much-needed standards on stingless bee honey, linking the quality with influencing factors such as the bee species, ecosystems and processing methods.

Overall, the Kakamega Forest Stingless Bee Research Station and Honey Marketplace will promote bee tourism, strengthen awareness on the need to protect the forest as well as reforestation and afforestation with indigenous tree species.

The facility also creates the opportunity for icipe to create a One Health corridor for the icipe flagship and emerging technologies, such as the insects for food, feed and other uses, push-pull technology, fruit fly integrated pest management packages, sustainable livestock tools, and integrated vector management approaches for diseases.

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