A Terre Madre delegation demonstrates that Slow Food’s goals of GOOD, CLEAN and FAIR are acheivable and sustainable.

Video by Steve Benbow

Beekeeping delegates from the remote forests of Zambia’s NW province will be attending Terre Madre in October. Representatives of North West Bee Products, a co-operative of 9000 honey and beeswax producers Bob Malichi and Gibson Palata will be accompanied by David Wainwright from their partner Tropical Forest Products in Mid Wales, UK. The delegation are keen to share the remarkable success story which has evolved over the course of 25 years from a development initiative to a model of sustainable development. Providing income for thousands of families, using technology that respects the ecology of the Miombo woodlands in the upper Zambezi basin, the producers supply an extraordinary exotic honey to hundreds of thousands of consumers in the UK and Europe.

The key to success has been the use of indigenous bark-hive technology combined with marketing the produce at the cutting edge of “alternative food chainsâ€?. The honey and beeswax from NWBP was the world’s first to be certified organic, and remains one of few available on the wider market that can claim to be organic both in it’s production methods and the nectar’s origin. The wax, in addition to being used in the cosmetic industry, is also crucial to the production of Organic honey in Europe. Beekeepers here must use wax from organic sources when introducing foundation wax to their colonies. Similarly, the connection between consumer and producer through Tropical Forest Products has been instrumental in defining the criteria for what is now regarded as fair-trade. Health food stores, food purchasing co-operatives and other ethical consumer markets have played a vital role in establishing a brand and product reputation with a dedicated following. In recent years, the honey has found valuable shelf space in the supermarkets. Developing the market for African honey has used these instruments to create the economic growth that delivers stable and secure livelihoods to the extremely remote communities spread over 130000 square kilometers that make up the co-operative members of NWBP.

The Zambian producer organisation has 9000 members now, with many more, a second generation, joining up daily. New members are learning from their fathers and uncles, mothers and aunts, the skills for producing food destined for the strict EU market using technology that has changed little in hundreds of years. But also that the income it generates is a real economic alternative to migrating to urban centres to work in the copper mines.

The delegation are keen to meet other African beekeepers building on an initiative that has emerged since the Terre Madre in 2004. Led by NWBP, TFP and Bees for Development, African beekeepers met at Apimondia Dublin 2005. The meeting highlighted the importance of creating a network of African beekeepers, neccesary to share good practice in the use and extension of traditional technology as well as developing the marketplace in the global north.

At Terre Madre 2006, David Wainwright will be on the panel of one of the Earth Workshops dealing with market access. The experience of negotiating access to markets across the EU regulation barrier and representing the small producer under certification for Organic and Fair Trade are key issues for food producers in developing countries.