A Sustainably Harvested Honey in Toledo That’s Helping to Preserve Wild Forests!

If you like your honey golden and sweet, you are in for double the treat when you find out that the honey coming out of Toledo is also helping the environment.  It’s a sustainably harvested honey that is bursting with flavours, but also has a value that goes beyond the taste buds where beekeepers are learning how to make money from bees without cutting down trees.  It’s a livelihood initiative that seeks to position our greatest undervalued solution to the climate crisis—forests. News Five went down into the forests of San Pedro Columbia to meet a nineteen-year-old beekeeper who is using his honey to pay his university education and keep the forests intact around his home. Andrea Polanco has the story.

Andrea Polanco, Reporting

Thick, gleaming liquid gold – it’s sustainably harvested honey from the forests of San Pedro Columbia. It’s a raw and rich honey with fruity notes – the end product of what begins with wild bees deep under the forest canopy in Toledo.

Nelvin Requeña is at his apiary collecting honeycombs to harvest fresh honey today.

Nelvin Requeña

Nelvin Requeña, Beekeeper

“We extracted the super from this box – so the third box is all honey and that is what we are going to take right now and extract back at the house. So, what we did is to remove lone honey from this box.”

Nelvin is a full-time university student but he also owns and manages this apiary of forty-five honeybee colonies. He became a beekeeper three years ago.

Nelvin Requeña

“I said why not try it? So, we got two hives at first and the first year we didn’t harvest any honey and we didn’t know what to do. All the bees just left. The second year we started again slowly with two new hives – we went to capture some new bees and from there we reached up to ten boxes and last year we actually harvested honey from four strong boxes and that gave us around nine hundred pounds of honey for that year.   Now we are at forty-five box so I think it paid off.”

This beekeeper estimates that he’ll harvest over one thousand, two hundred pounds of honey this season. While he sees this as a money making venture, he and his family have always depended on the healthy forests around them. And he learnt quickly that the value of beekeeping goes beyond the dollars in his pockets.

Nelvin Requeña

“So, bee-keeping is one of the most sustainable agricultural practices out there. So, you having bees you need proper foraging areas which mean good standing forests – fruit trees and crops you need those areas to harvest the honey and the other products from the colony so beekeeping allows forests to remain standing.”

Forests are among the most powerful and cost-effective, nature-based solutions to tackle climate change and keep global temperature rise below two degrees Celsius. But forests around the world and in Belize are under pressure – they are being cut down for development projects; timber, and agriculture. In Toledo, it is not always easy to stop the cutting down of wild lands because for many this is their way of life. And so for the last ten years Ya’axche Conservation Trust has been visiting several farming villages, including San Pedro, Columbia, to engage in climate smart practices, such as beekeeping, that will help to preserve these forests which in turn will support their means of living for generations to come.

Gustavo Requeña, Community & Livelihoods Outreach Director, Ya’axche Conservation Trust

“Beekeeping is such a very good response to all the climatic issues that we have been having and so it is a natural fit into our climate smart program in terms of agricultural production that we envision that we know is improving community livelihoods and helping in the conservation of our natural resources.  Any beekeeper will tell you that I cannot have bees unless I have forests. So, our program is geared towards how is it that we continue maintaining production of the agricultural commodities that our communities depend on but in a manner that is less destructive to the forest and so can work in harmony with the beekeeping aspect of the work that we promote. What we do there is to provide them with alternative ways of farming – farming that does not require the burning of our land so that we can still maintain our forest cover.”

Gustavo Requeña

Andrea Polanco

“Are they using this to sustain their livelihoods?”

Gustavo Requeña

“Certainly income is being generated that they use to sustain their livelihoods. When we did the cost of production analysis for beekeeping – we realized that is one of the most profitable agricultural ventures that can be undertaken without damaging the forests. The returns are very high if you are able to diversify the product line from your colonies.”

And Nelvin recognizes the role of these bees and so his apiary doesn’t just benefit his household.

Nelvin Requeña

“There are ocelots; jaguarundi; agouti, right in the same area where the bees are so that allows habitat for those animals. So, it is co-existence. The bees use the flowers and then the animals use the fruits from the trees and they have a home here; so it is benefit for both as well as benefit for us because we generate income from the honey that we collect from the bees. And help the community in the pollination services because while we have these bees in this property they definitely forage out of the property – so if the farmer has corn; lime or any fruit trees – the bees will definitely pollinate it and will have increased yields.”

There are eleven other beekeepers working with Ya’axche Conservation Trust. They come from villages like Trio, Indian Creek, and Bladen. Last year, these Maya Golden Landscape communities harvested around two thousand pounds of honey and are on track to harvest more this year within a protected area. Ya’axche supports them with equipment, bee transportation and honey extraction training which benefit the forest and their homes.

Erwin Tush, Agro-forestry Extension Officer, Ya’axche Conservation Trust

“Through my experience passing through these farms, the farmers are protecting the forest cover because it is very important for the bees. If you see right now there are farmers who have their bees inside an established milpa – what would be the reason for that – they need the bees to pollinate and I have seen with my own eyes when there is corn to harvest there are huge corn beautiful corn.”

Erwin Tush

Andrea Polanco

“But also this is something that also being done within a protected area – talk to me about that aspect of what Ya’axche is leading?”

Erwin Tush

“Yes we are working with the Trip group in the concession which is the Maya Mountain North Forest Reserve – last year we harvested roughly six hundred to eight hundred pounds of honey from that section itself and this year they are still harvesting through to the end of the May.   I do know that there is enough forage for the bees to forage to find food because it is a concession and there is abundance and plenty of food there.”

And for the people of Toledo – they get quality honey – like this golden honey from Requeña’s farm where it is harvested, bottled and sold under the name 501-R.

Nelvin Requeña

“The area where we are, the vegetation allows for that color and our consumers love that golden color. It is very sweet and you just get an after taste when you eat the honey; so the color and taste sweet is what our customers love.   Right now all the honey is locally consumed right here in Toledo. A few moved out district but the local demand is here for honey down here in Toledo.”

Reporting for News Five, I’m Andrea Polanco.

If you want to support Nelvin Requeña’s sustainable honey business, you can reach him at 615-3115 or 634-2341 or you can find them on Facebook under their name 501-R.