Apiculture becomes an important arm of CAMGEW’s activities because it improves livelihood and helps in nature conservation. CAMGEW discovered that the more we train and engage community members in bee farming and support them with beehives the more bushfire disappears. We tried to equate honey to money to jobs and income. When this equation become real more community members get involve in honey production and should bushfire occur they become the first to tackle it. They serve as environmental ambassadors doing sensitization to stop bushfire and protect their beehives. In doing this they automatically protect biodiversity that bees, man and others depend on. To better promote this solidarity, bee farmers are organized into groups like cooperative because solidarity is economic and social power needed in production, marketing and risk prevention/management like bushfire.  When bushfire occur they move in solidarity to put it off, they bring their honey together to process and sell and when each member has a success story, challenge or problems they stand by him/her as an insurance.

CAMGEW also trained community members on apiculture local technology production and use(bee suits, bee smokers, various beehives) to enable communities become self-reliant. CAMGEW train communities to transform honey to honey juice/wine and bees wax to various soaps, lotions (hair and body), candles, etc. Communities learn about honey product quality control and traceability entrepreneurship, packaging and marketing. CAMGEW then a Honey Marketing cooperative (North West Bee Farmers’ Messenger – NOWEFAM) in Bamenda to convert bee farmers honey to money. Below are our various sectors of interventions. CAMGEW has trained above 5000 community members on honey value chain.

• Honey production
• Bees wax extraction
• Honey and bees wax transformation
• Honey and bees wax quality and traceability
• Honey/honey product packaging
• Honey and honey product marketing
• Entrepreneurship in the honey value chain
• Production of various honey equipment using local technology
• Education about bees to humanity and nature
• Apiary setting and management