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bees for babar®

Peacekeeping through beekeeping: reducing wildlife conflicts and increasing incomes with guardian hives.

BfB provides rotary credit to villagers to install hives around subsistence farms near the Mole wildlife reserve in Ghana. When elephants attempt to raid crops they will upset trip-wired hives. The bees will drive off the elephants– preserving both the crops and the elephants (who might otherwise be poached by enraged farmers).

simulation of elephant encountering hives

Crop damage caused by raiding elephants.

Farms in close proximity to wildlife reserves can suffer from crop-raiding by elephants and other animals (left) which can induce poaching incidents (right).

Remains of an elephant poached.
 
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In August 2007 a small group of American, Canadian and Ghanaian friends incorporated "bees for babar" (BfB) as a registered non-profit society in British Columbia to assist subsistence farmers who have suffered crop losses caused by wildlife, particularly elephants. To achieve this, BfB provides beehives and beekeeping training for farmers whose cultivated plots are on land adjoining wildlife reserves in Ghana.
 

The word "babar", in the Gonja language of the Northern Region of Ghana, where the project has been initiated, means "come to my aid". In addition, it is also Turkish for lion. Lions have long held an odd and almost mystical association with honeybees (see "The Bee-Riddled Carcass"). We allude to these associations to title a project to promote conservation, eco-tourism and beekeeping as an income-generating activity in developing countries:

bees for babar®

(This site and project has no affiliation with the family of the Mogul leader of the same name nor with other entitities using the word "babar".)

Lion with bee in mouth amidst seven stars and mystic symbols (from a red jasper cameo associated with a cult of Mithras).
Samson's lion from the label of a popular honey-like syrup.
Lioness and bee (from an Etruscan gem
 

 

Members of women's cooperative using beekeeping as an income generating activity.

Early recipients of the Bees for Babar hives.

This project benefits subsistence farmers whose cultivated plots are on land bordering Mole Park in Ghana.

Funds raised by the "bees for babar" society are used to provide apicultural training and to purchase materials for the construction of hives and beekeeping equipment as a means of discouraging wildlife from raiding farmers' crop as well as to provide supplemental income from increased pollination of crops and the sale of honey and wax.

We aim to make every dollar count. Society members are all non-paid volunteers and all donations are channeled to fieldwork. International travel costs are covered by funding outside the charity (see information on the Farmer-to-Farmer program [NOTE-- that information is contained on an old server; use the alt-left-arrow key combo to return back to the current site).

 
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bees for babar index

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