African honey bees help elephants and farmers

This video says about itself:

African honey bees change lives and save elephants

14 November 2015

The Elephants and Bees Project is an innovative study using an in-depth understanding of elephant behaviour to reduce damage from crop-raiding elephants using their instinctive avoidance of African honey bees. The project explores the use of novel Beehive Fences as a natural elephant deterrent creating a social and economic boost to poverty-stricken rural communities through pollination services and the sustainable harvesting of “Elephant-Friendly Honey”.

Elephants & Bees is thrilled to share this short video on the project’s amazing milestones. Get to learn how bees are bringing harmony to communities that live with wildlife.

By Lucy King from Kenya:

New Elephants and Bees Video by FFN winner Lucy King

An update from Lucy King, our Future for Nature Award winner 2013. She just released the first ever Elephant and Bees Project Video [see above] …

“The establishment of the Elephants and Bees Research Center in late 2013 on an acre of donated land from, and in the heart of, the wonderful Sagalla community just outside Tsavo East National Park has boosted our hands-on involvement in this community lead research project and enabled us to establish a more in-depth research program in the heart of this human-elephant conflict hotspot. The farmers we are collaborating with to test our novel beehive fence design are fully engaged in the research and their livelihoods are flourishing thanks to reduced elephant crop-raids, pollination services and the sustainable harvesting and sales of delicious ‘Elephant-Friendly Honey’.

Beyond our Tsavo-based Elephants and Bees Research Center, we have been supporting the establishment of beehive fence projects being initiated by new partners in both Africa and Asia. Data is slowly coming in from trial beehive fence sites in Tanzania, Botswana, Uganda and Mozambique, and this year new projects have started in Chad, South Africa, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand. The growing interest from all over Africa and Asia has encouraged us that our holistic concept of deploying beehive fences as a sustainable human-elephant conflict reduction approach is viable for those subsistence farmers living side by side with these vulnerable and endangered pachyderms.”

Visit her website for more information.