A sweet solution for adapting to climate change
In the steep red hills of the Ngororero district in northwest Rwanda, Antoine Nsanzumuhire gently lifts a honeycomb from one of his beehives. Bees are swirling around him as he delicately lifts the latticework, rich in golden honey.
Nsanzumuhire has 200 modern hives dotted across his forest-fringed farm, something he can scarcely believe. Just a few years ago he had 20, as landslides and erratic weather – made worse by climate change – ravaged his small beekeeping operation. But with support from a project backed by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), he joined a local cooperative. Members taught him how to use modern beehives and plant trees around his farm, which helps boost production by providing foraging grounds for the bees.
“The money I am earning now allows me to plan for two main goals,” says Nsanzumuhire. ”The first is to build a good house and set up my own honey business.”
Nsanzumuhire is among hundreds of Rwandan farmers whose incomes have grown thanks to the UNEP-backed project launched by the Rwanda Environment Management Authority, with support from the Global Environment Facility. The project, active in communities across the country, is helping restore forests and wetlands while equipping farmers with livelihoods that are more resilient to climate stress.
Unlike crops, beekeeping is less vulnerable to rainfall fluctuations. But for beehives to thrive, communities have had to embark on an ambitious effort to restore degraded land and plant trees, which absorb rainfall and anchor soil with their roots, reducing the risk of floods, droughts, and landslides. The forests have also become foraging ground for bees.
Tree planting has another benefit: forests absorb carbon dioxide from the air, helping to cool the planet and counter the climate crisis.
The work in Ngoreorero district is what experts refer to as ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) to climate change. Mirey Atallah, Head of UNEP’s Adaptation and Resilience Branch, says ecosystem-based adaptation is a cost-effective solution to the climate crisis.
“What makes ecosystem-based adaptation so powerful is that it solves more than one problem at once — it cools the land, restores biodiversity, reduces floods and puts money in people’s pockets,” Atallah says.
After years of environmental degradation driven by human activities such as illegal mining, logging, and overgrazing, and compounded by the climate crisis, the UNEP-supported project in Rwanda restored over 700 hectares of degraded ecosystems, including forests, wetlands, savannahs and riverbanks.
On the eastern side of Rwanda in Kirehe district, Marine Babonampoze, dressed in her beekeeping suit, walks through the now protected Ibanda-Makera forest, where melodic bird song and insect hums fill the air. She is joined by fellow beekeepers from a new cooperative, also established with the UNEP-supported project.
Babonampoze emphasizes the power of community. “Cooperative members work together and care for one another,” says Babonampoze. “Everything becomes better when we unite.”
While beekeeping in Rwanda is traditionally considered a male activity, the project has benefited female community members. “In the beginning, we were only men,” says Jean Baptiste Ngirinshuti, a cooperative representative in Kirehe. “Women who had already joined and improved their livelihoods brought others along, which is why you now see more women than men involved.”
Since the project was established, yields have soared in the Ngororero beekeeping cooperative by nearly 10-fold to 264 kg per season.
Distribution channels: Environment
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