06 Oca 2025 Pazartesi
Himalayan honeybees: Threats and conservation strategies for sustainable beekeeping
Abstract : Beekeeping is a wonderful venture that accounts for strengthening and creating people’s livelihoods as it creates a wide range of different capital assets for sustainable livelihoods approach. Besides yielding honey and other products, honeybees are great pollinators of most of fruits, vegetables and crops. Beekeeping should be a regular part of village agriculture worldwide, and we need to ensure that its identity must be retained as a regular practice. Honey is used as traditional medicine or food in nearly all societies and whether sold in a simple way at village level or packaged form, it generates income and can create livelihoods for several sectors. The beekeepers and other people in a community can create further assets by using honey and other products to make secondary products, such as candles, beauty creams or beer. Selling a secondary product brings a far better return for the producer than selling the raw commodity: all of this work may effectively strengthen people’s livelihoods. A. cerana which is indigenous honeybee species has lost its importance after the introduction of exotic species. Conservation of Himalayan honeybee A. cerana may improve socio-economic safety and security among villagers and tribal people of hill state. In the present article, efforts have been made to compile the status of A. cerana, reasons for its decline and recommendations to conserve this small beneficial insect.