Real Stories of Change

Honey production is a critical lifeline for Ethiopia’s subsistence farmers, yet they are grappling with a modern catastrophe: the widespread loss of bees due to pesticide use.

Molla Adugna lives with his wife and children in Fogera, Ethiopia. To make ends meet he works hard cultivating crops, keeping livestock and he is also a beekeeper. But he soon noticed that as he used more pesticides, his honey bees were dying.

Molla has now joined Bees for Development’s Farmer Field School to learn about ways of farming which need less pesticides and his bee colonies are recovering.

With your donations, we will train 1,000 Ethiopian farmers to adopt agroecological farming techniques and sustainable practices.

Large parts of the region around Lake Tana, Ethiopia have a problem with degraded land, through a combination of climate impacts, loss of trees and overgrazing. Planting trees and protecting them helps people and nature - including bees - as well as stabilising the land to prevent soil erosion. Here is what has been achieved so far at Ysala, by working with the local community to reverse a worsening situation.

"When we were children there was forest all around here, and there were deer, antelope, wild pigs - all these animals were found here.
People were cutting down the trees without constraint. It gradually became barren. There has been a lot of erosion.
What I am feeling now - I feel very happy seeing the land covered in green. " Kes Imagnehu Simeneh

With support from Rowse Honey, Bees for Development Ethiopia is helping to bring the land back to life for people and nature here.

Dessalegn Bahirew makes his living from a small plot of land in Amhara, Ethiopia. He has found that bees enable him to plan for crops ahead, rather than trying to make a living day-by-day. It is a step in a ladder towards farming as a viable long-term livelihood.

Gebeyaw Abebe - Changing lives with honey

Iniyew Abe - Youths use beekeeping to transform their lives

Tigared never had an education. Married with three children she lives in a remote village in Ethiopia with little chance of earning a livelihood. With beekeeping she has a chance and she is determined to change this for her children.