Beekeeping project sweetens lives
Print Edition
Ming Meng is trying to improve the lives of people in the mountainous Ya’an areas in southwest China’s Sichuan Province when he introduced to them beekeeping skills under a World Heritage sustainable livelihood project.
Toward that end, Ming, the head of a local non-governmental organization, traveled some 2,000 kilometers from Sichuan to Beijing, bringing with him two frames of honeycomb and dozens of bottles of honey to Mercedes Me, a cafe cum restaurant in the captial’s Sanlitun shopping area.
The products are not just exhibits and ingredients for the restaurant but the fruits of the beekeeping project designed to help protect the UNESCO’s Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries World Heritage site.
In Ya’an, most residents make a living by grazing livestock in mountainous areas for low pay. That is the sole source of income for these residents, and it harms the environment because of over-grazing.
However, abundant wild flowers and plants in the mountainous areas created an opportunity for the project.
Modeling it on a study launched in 2015, Ming and his team began to teach local herders how to keep bees and make honey in April.
Initially many residents resisted changes to their way of life and were afraid of the bees, but increasingly more of them were now taking part in the project, said Ming. This year, the project was expected to produce 300,000 yuan (US$45,200) worth of honey, he said.
Besides its honey project in Ya’an, UNESCO is also promoting Sani embroidery from the Shilin County of Yunnan Province within the South China Karst World site, and the bamboo handicrafts from Chishui City in Guizhou Province in the China Danxia site.
The embroidery and the bamboo handicrafts projects seek to preserve traditional craftsmanship, empower women and encourage creative cultural industries.
The sustainable livelihood project helped people to overcome poverty in a eco-friendly way, said Li Hongpeng, chairman of the Mercedes-Benz Star Fund Management Committee, which supports the project along with UNESCO and the China Youth Development Foundation.
Marielza Oliveira, director of UNESCO’s Beijing office, said she hoped that the data and experience gained from these projects could serve as a foundation for poverty-alleviation efforts in other developing countries.
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