Bee confident

In many parts of the world, smallholders and wild collectors sometimes lack the requisite knowledge and have limited access to training. That, in turn, restricts their income. They live in remote areas and face a range of challenges that impact on their livelihoods.

In the San Pedro region of Paraguay, Martin Bauer is helping smallholders and wild collectors to improve the quality of their products and their own productivity – guided by the sustainable sourcing standard mabagrown. As part of the approach, wild collectors and smallholders learn valuable information within hands-on projects that help them unlock their potential – allowing them to support themselves and their communities and to become more resilient.

From vulnerable to resilient

Ignacio (35) lives in Unión with his wife Benita (32) and their children Erme (14), Junior (13), and Maria (4). Ignacio’s parents are smallholders, and he often helps them out. For the past five years he has also been working as a traditional wild collector. The family relies on orange and lemon peel for their income, which is based on the volume and quality of the peel collected. Due to the seasonal nature of Ignacio’s earnings, he and his family are vulnerable to uncontrollable events like bad weather and a poor harvest.
Low income and high unemployment in rural areas is causing other families to cross the border into Argentina for seasonal agricultural work. As foreign, migrant workers, they often experience compromises to their civil rights and personal dignity. To help overcome these challenges, our project explored ways of stabilizing the household income of Ignacio’s family and 104 other families in the region in order to build up their resilience.

The idea of honey production as an additional source of income actually came from the very people participating in our project. Honey is a popular food in the region of San Pedro. But there were a few obstacles to overcome first.

Ignacio: “Initially, I was not confident about keeping bees as I knew very little about it and lacked the necessary equipment. Following the weekly training sessions and having received strong support from the project team, I can now not only keep bees throughout the year and harvest honey up to four times, I’m also able to catch a swarm of wild bees and prepare my own hive for them.”

A strong leadership group

Ignacio has now progressed from learner to dedicated trainer for other families in the project. He also enthusiastically promotes the project to neighbors and friends, who have starting gaining an interest. With his newly acquired knowledge and confidence, he can play an active role in his community.

Over a period of nine months, the project formed a strong leadership group including Ignacio and 15 other men and women. This is a group of active community leaders who are seriously committed to positive change. They have not only successfully promoted the bee project, greatly enhancing its impact, they have also facilitated further discussion and have helped tackle community issues.

Ignacio: “In the beginning, some people smirked at the participants in the bee project because communities here have seen many NGOs come and go while nothing has actually changed for them. Now they can see a positive change and sense that they have a real opportunity themselves.”

Our beekeeping program has seen an impressive rise in honey production from 511 liters in the first to 1,430 liters in the second year. Given the success of the pilot, the Martin Bauer Group is looking forward to expanding the project in 2020. By providing the right tools, guidance and knowledge to people like Ignacio, the project is empowering wild collectors and smallholders to access new sources of income. This makes families more financially secure and enables communities to thrive. As a result, wild collection and smallholding are remaining viable and attractive livelihoods for people in the San Pedro region.