Bio-diversity

The only Bee Species found on Socotra Api Yemenitca is an endemic species to the Island. It exists in the wild and produce honey opportunistically harvested on ad hoc basis by whom might find it leading to huge damage to wild bee and producing low quality honey. Only recently, bee-keeping started in 2004, when a number of bee keepers (210) were trained and equipped with basic tools to breed honey in captivity. The majority of them are currently produce honey successfully. The average honey production per hive range between 7.4-2.1 kg/Hive/season (two seasons/year). The previous projects trained several trainers and 210 bee-keepers from selected parts of Socotra from regions that has potential for honey production. The current project aimed at expanding the success story of previous project by expanding training to 7 trainers and extra 110 new bee-keepers including 20 women (110 families) from geographical regions that were not included before. Trainees will be provided with basic facilities of starting the business of honey production. Project will allow new bee-keeper of planting nectar producing tree species like Ziziphyus Sp. as multi-purpose use trees. The project will create a new data base for documenting bee keeping and certification of ownership, honey branding and quality control. The project also aimed at institutional capacity building for the Socotra Foundation for breeding and conservation of honey bees in their effort toward sustainable use of biodiversity for community livelihood improvement on Socotra. The project will create at least 110 jobs sustaining 110 families on Socotra.

Yemen