By Josephine Crouch | Development Operations Manager
It's pollinator week!
And we are paying tribute to the kelulut honey bee. This tiny, stingless species is helping boost sustainable economies, healthy people and healthy environments in the Gunung Naning Protection Forest. The kelulut honey bee is small; you might just be able to see it in the photo as Ikwanto monitors one of the community hives.
This species is just one of the thousands of pollinators of importance to the communities and forests of Borneo. There is a clear link between healthy, diverse forests and a biodiverse, wild pollinator population. Pollinators that smallholder farmers in remote areas are reliant on for their livelihoods and food security.
This is why these farmers do all they can to protect these pollinators and their forests using climate-smart agricultural techniques. Techniques include shifting to multi-crop systems, improving land management for drought resistance, and, most importantly, switching from chemical pesticides to organic ones.
Our technical team is continually researching, testing, training, and working with our lead farmer network on the latest, most effective, and most efficient sustainable agricultural practices that not only improve yields and decrease farmers’ production costs but also benefit the surrounding ecosystem and its most important pollinators.
Update: Communities now have 56 hives in operation. Our goal is to reach 100 by the end of the year.
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By Josephine Crouch | Development Operations Manager
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