Program helps locals live with elephants

Beekeeping

In June 2020, IFAW China, in collaboration with the Mengyang Protection Station of Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve and the Rainforest Foundation of Xishuangbanna, a local nonprofit, the "Community Livelihood Development to Promote Asian Elephant Protection" project was launched in Daotangqing village, Mengyang township, Jinghong.

This community, comprising 34 households and 150 residents of the Yi ethnic group, had relocated from the core area of the national nature reserve in the late 1990s to aid in the conservation of Asian elephants, a species under national first-class protection, said Cao Dafan, program officer of the AEP program.

Following their relocation, however, wild elephants also ventured into the area surrounding the village. Once in 2022, Cao said, the villagers witnessed a visit of a herd of 22 wild elephants.

On May 10, Zhang Jiangmei, a villager, said that an elephant visited a stream near the hamlet in the evening to have a drink and a bath.

Cao said that the primary source of income for villagers is derived from cultivating rubber trees. However, due to a decline in rubber prices over the past few years, their incomes have also experienced a notable decrease.

"So we worked to help the community explore some alternative sources of income to reduce their dependency on rubber trees," he said.

At first, Cao and his colleagues decided to promote beekeeping in the village. "Beekeeping is eco-friendly, good for crop cultivation and easy for villagers to learn and master," he said.

In 2020, the project invested 75,000 yuan ($10,600) to acquire 100 hives of the Chinese bee and an additional 100 empty beehives and distributed them to 10 families in the Daotangqing village.

In addition to providing training on beekeeping techniques, Cao and his team also helped the beekeepers establish management rules.

One of these rules includes prohibiting the introduction of wild swarms of bees into the hives, Cao said. It helps maintain the health and productivity of the bee colonies, he explained.

Between 2020 and last year, he said, beekeeping generated an income of about 200,000 yuan for the participants in the project.

However, there was an unexpected setback.

Between September and October last year, the bee population in Daotangqing experienced a significant drop, with half of the bees perishing, Cao said. The villagers soon found the cause — a species of hornet that was being cultivated in a nearby village attacked the Chinese bees at Daotangqing, feeding on their pupa.

"In Xishuangbanna, hornet pupa is considered a delicacy," Cao said. "So some people have cultivated the aggressive species to meet the market demand."

After negotiations between the two communities, the hornet cultivators agreed to cease their practice. Because of the incident, Cao said, the population of the bees at Daotangqing needs some time to restore.