Uganda: How bees and trees can help prevent landslides

DW (English)

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.

Transcript

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

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