Bee
Conservation Project (BCP) is a non-profit organisation dedicated
to preserving the honeybees, which are endangered by hunting in
rural Nigeria. Essentially, BCP seeks to preserve the endangered
honeybees in order to ensure the well being of man given the vital
roles of these social insects to health, agriculture and the environment.
But beyond its primary motive of preserving the bees as vital
part of natural environment, BCP also explores these tiny noble
insects as resource base to empower the poor rural dwellers through
beekeeping training and apitherapy (the use of bee products to
promote health and healing). In effect, BCP is charting a new
future for rural system in Nigeria using beekeeping and apitherapy
as the pivot of sustainable human development.
Bees
are our passion, people are our motive and bee conservation is
our life.
OUR MISSION
BCP is out
to preserve the endangered honeybees in order to ensure the well
being of man given the critical roles of these tiny noble insects
to health, agriculture and the environment.
OUR
VISION
BCP seeks
to engrave the honeybees in the consciousness of Nigerians as
vital part of the environment and a veritable resource base to
engender sustainable human development.
WHAT
PROMPTED BEE CONSERVATION PROJECT?
In
Nigeria, the local bee hunters supply the bulk of honey stock
in the market. In fact, bee hunting is a yearly ritual in our
rural communities because of the rising demand for honey in the
urban centres. The mode of hunting is so gruesome that danger
of extinction looms on these social insects. Unlike in the developed
countries where honeybees are cultivated for sustainable honey
production, natural beehives are set on fire by the rural people
to kill the bees in order to have access to the honeycombs. And
in most cases, hunted bee colonies rarely have survivors because
the few bees that might not have been killed by fire are starved
to death having been robbed of food (honey) by the hunters. Worse
still, bee hunting is carried out in dry season (February - March)
when the honeybees' reproductive process (brooding) is at its
lowest ebb due to scarcity of flower nectar to produce honey that
can sustain additional bee population. However, two factors account
for bee hunting, which has seriously depleted the population of
honeybees in Nigeria. One, most Nigerians until lately, were ignorant
of the fact that bees can be managed in man-made hives for honey
production. Two, the crushing poverty in our rural communities
exposes the honeybees to unbridled exploitation because the poor
rural folks hunt them to source honey to be traded for money in
order to make ends meet. In effect, the need to halt hunting of
honeybees and forestall the dire consequences of their extinction
on human life and the environment informed the establishment of
BCP in January 2000. BCP is actualizing its mission and vision
through training; campaigns and advocacy; research, publications;
workshops and seminars.
PROJECT
OBJECTIVES
- To save
the honeybees from extinction in Nigeria; ·
- To explore
bees as resource base to empower the poor rural;
- To impart
beekeeping skills in the rural people, thus promoting sustainable
exploitation of honeybees for economic purposes;
- To educate
the rural people on the linkage of bees to sustainable human
development with a view to making them protect these little
dreadful creatures like a bank vault; and ·
- To educate
our people on the healthful properties of bee products and their
uses for disease prevention and cure.
WHY
HONEYBEES NEED TO BE PROTECTED LIKE A BANK VAULT?
