Bio-diversity

Imeh and Umuakuru Communities are part of Igbo Agwuru Asa clan, Etche Local Government Area in the Rivers State. The communities are accessible by land with relative forest and farmland among other resources. Imeh Community has an estimated population of 31,000 persons made up of 13,950 male and 17,050 female, while Umuakuru Community has a present estimated population of about 5,700 persons made up of 2,565 male and 3,135 female as obtained from community sources respectively. Livelihoods activities in the two communities are farming, trading and agro processing. However, the main occupation is collection and production of honey and other bee products. The process of honey collection and production of honey and other bee products has led to indiscriminate bush burning leading to deforestation with attendant effects of erosion, flooding and pollution of the environment. During the 2013 Etche 1 Cluster Communities Development Plans update, facilitated by SHERDA, the above stated constraints were discovered and as a way forward, capacity building /skills acquisition in agro-business enterprises aimed at stemming them were identified as one of the projects/programmes to address the constraints; this, however, is yet to be fully implemented due to limited fund. This project therefore aims to engage in the following: Establishment of two Apiaries in all the donated farmland of Imeh & Umuakuru communities; Installation of 100 top-bar hives in the two apiaries; Each hive is colonized by bees thereby promoting quality pollination plants and crops hence enriching biodiversity; Procurement of 10 bee suits with veil, 10 smokers, 4 hive tools and 2 honey static press with 2 centrifugal honey extractors thereby promoting in-situ capacity building in apiculture . "

Nigeria