The project is in the Nakuru district of the Rift Valley Province and in the forested foothills of the Mau Escarpment. The Rift Valley is one of the more economically advanced provinces in Kenya with adequate rainfall for agriculture, but the population here is very dense giving rise to immense pressure on the natural resources.

The forest has been resettled by government edict over the past 10 years and much environmental degradation has resulted from the forest removal undertaken to make way for settlers. The settlers have each been allocated shambas (or small farm plots) of about five acres of land which they use for agriculture, but since the area is newly settled, there has been little opportunity for economic activity to develop.

Settlers mainly originate from outside the area and belong to a wide variety of tribal groupings. The organisation of beekeeping groups has brought people from all tribal groupings together in a common cause helping to improve relationships within the area. In all, 20 beekeeping groups of 10 people per group have been established across the area by the local project organisers.

Bees Abroad has funded training for 20 people (one person from each group) to attend the excellent beekeeping course at Baraka Agricultural College in Molo, Nakuru. This centre provides first-class training run by expert beekeeping technicians with plenty of practical work in the form of hive and apiary management, an apiary house, training in production of bee hives and beesuits from local materials, honey extraction and honey marketing. The courses fit in perfectly with Bees Abroad’s training philosophy, which encourages people to be able to make their own hives and equipment so they have the knowledge to expand their business in the future. Bees Abroad has also funded a locally made smoker for each group to help get their beekeeping started safely.

The next phase of the project will be to help those group members who cannot find the resources to invest in beekeeping to take small start-up loans that will be repayable in either honey or money. Bees Abroad expertise will be used to help the beekeeping groups produce quality honey and find good markets for their honey production.

The local partner organisation is NELBEM which stands for Nessuit, Bee keeping, Livestock and Environmental Management - www.nelbem.org.