Conservation and development with indigenous honey collectors

The Nilgris forms a part of the Nilgris Biosphere Reserve in the Western Ghats. It is composed of moist, dry, evergreen and montane tropical forests. The region harbours a wealth of flora and fauna, much of which is restricted to the region. The forest ecosystem is under large pressure, e.g. from tea and coffee plantations, illegal logging and commercial tree plantations. It has a significant tribal population, which depend on natural resources for their livelihoods, including the only surviving hunter-gatherers of the Indian Subcontinent: the Sholanaikans in the New Amarambalam of Nilgris. Seasonal income comes from the collection of honey and bee wax. The Keystone Foundation has been working in the area to analyse the availability and sustainable harvesting of Apis dorsata and building micro-enterprises with honey and bee wax. It adds to the people's seasonal income and completes their ritualistic and traditional needs. It is a strategically important method to improve the tribe's economic and social position and their hold on forest resources; a tradition which is constantly under threat by external interventions. Therefore, the project focuses on the practicalities of sustainable, local forest management, thereby showing the government and other parties the needs and opportunities to invest and the tribal-based forest economy. A larger training, processing and production facility will be built to cover a wider area and to provide facilities for indigenous people from other areas in the Western Ghats. NGO will help to provide sustainable harvesting techniques and improve incomes to a larger number of people and to contribute, in a concrete way, to the conservation of forests from a local perspective.

The project has been useful to generate information, resource maps, awareness and technical know-how with regards to honey in the region of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. It assisted to build an eco-development plan for the Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary, which has 36 villages and high biotic pressure. The work will be incorporated in the lager plan of the Forest Department- however, the progress towards that needs follow up and regular contact with the concerned officials. The information on honey and honey hunters has direct relevance to the work of Keystone. The construction of 'the Hive' at Keystone serves as a procuring, processing and training facility for the region. It mainly deals with honey and bees wax items, but is also expanding into other NTFPs and organically grown farm products. This facility was useful in training 30 groups of adivasis for sustainable collection of honey, local value addition and processing and marketing. Most got an exposure on the possibilities of future work and it is hoped that with constant follow up from Keystone, some of them will initiate similar work in their own areas. Keystone has now got a GIS unit and resource maps of the area. This facility can be used by planners and researchers in the future.