Super Bees: How Solomon Islanders Are Turning to These Tiny Heroes to Help Save Their Forests
Tags: International Development, Honey, Climate Change, Pacific Islands, Beekeeping

Far up a river, deep in a rainforest, Jacob Manana, 27, of Rarakisi village in the Solomon Islands, tends to his backyard beehives.

Isolated and accessible only by boat, Rarakisi offers few opportunities for people to earn a living. Prior to beekeeping, Manana, like his neighbors, relied entirely on produce from his garden to put food on the table.

“I was always running to my brothers and sisters for help,” says Manana.

Despite these hardships, Rarakisi’s abundance of trees and thick vegetation has made the village a bright spot in a country challenged with rampant deforestation.

Rainforests used to cover most of the Solomon Islands. For decades, though, foreign commercial logging companies have been paying royalties to the tribes to harvest trees from their customary lands. Over time, this has depleted much of the forests. In the past five years, timber has been harvested at a rate seven times what is considered sustainable.

Deforestation now threatens the lives and well-being of people throughout the Solomon Islands because there are fewer trees to protect villages from rainfall and flooding hazards that are only getting stronger due to climate change. Today, one storm can displace families and ruin crops. The tribes of Rarakisi saw this destruction in surrounding villages and resolved to not let this happen to them.

“Turn your backyard into a golden spring,” touts the evocative motto of the Katazo Honey Farmers’ Network, a partner of the Natural Resources Development Foundation. / NRDF

Local Heroes Emerge

The Pacific Islands are on the front lines of global climate change and natural disasters. While civil society organizations have been developing solutions to adapt to these new challenges, many lack the funding and management needed to make lasting impact.

USAID is addressing this challenge through its Pacific-American Climate Fund (PACAM). Launched in 2013, the $24 million fund awards grants to promising civil society organizations in 12 Pacific countries to implement and scale up climate-resilient, community­level adaptation measures. PACAM also trains organizations to improve their management and financial practices so projects can last long after USAID’s funding is complete.

ln 2015, USAID’s PACAM project awarded a $168,000 grant to the Natural Resources Development Foundation (NRDF) to scale up its projects that assist villages to sustainably manage their forests and reduce their vulnerability to floods, droughts and other climate-induced events.

The project works with communities to help them manage and conserve their forests themselves rather than selling logging rights to commercial interests. The project also helps the communities to certify their timber, ensuring the forests provide sustainable environmental, social and economic benefits. Though it could take years, these measures are expected to help turn the tide on deforestation in the Solomon Islands.

One component of the project, however, is having an immediate impact on people’s lives. The project offers viable livelihood options for people like Manana, in hopes of steering them away from destructive logging practices. While some villagers are taking up nature tourism projects, others, including Manana, now run honeybee farms in their backyards.