Opportunities on conserving/managing wild honey bees

– Pollination services from wild honey bees in the context of biodiversity conservation and productivity enhancement are important. This ensures the continuity for those plant species, which are now limited in high altitude forests of Nepal.

– Eco-tourism with the indigenous honey hunting communities can maintain traditional knowledge and practices and enhance livelihoods. This will provide a basis for promoting community-based ecotourism industry in Nepal. Tourists who come to Nepal in a group are paying $250-$1500 to experience one honey-hunting event. If done in an eco-friendly way, such a component of eco-tourism could provide a route out of poverty, with tourists being charged to view and take part in honey hunting.

– Average landholding of a Nepalese farmer is about 0.5 ha, but there are many marginalized farmers in Nepal who have little or no land. As beekeeping is a non-land based farming system and requires little resources, beekeeping can add supplementary non-land based income for such households.

– Some wild honey bee species can be managed in small shelters, so publicly available unmanaged land can be used for rearing such honey bees and more profit can be generated.

– Honey bee products like pollen and honey can be promoted as a natural medicinal treatment which has high demand in the market.