Education and dissemination

Ethiopia: In general, most of the Ethiopian beekeepers are not properly trained and have not visited beekeeping training centers, but gained their knowledge from further generations within the family/village. There is not much information on beekeeping training sites, but one example is: “Honeys of Ethiopia”, a network that brings together producers and consumers. They offer technical support, knowledge exchange and beekeeping training, and they also promote the products nationally and internationally. The Ethiopian Society of Apiculture Science (ESAS) provides training manuals that can be purchased from the office of ESAS. They were written in English and in three different local languages and they contain guidelines/manuals for quality production, honey bee product harvesting and postharvest management. Holeta Bee Research Center also provides hard copies of simplified training manuals for beekeepers, including a production manual for different beekeeping equipments. There are also several Beekeeping associations and projects formed by NGOs and GOs, aiming the training of Ethiopian beekeepers.

Indonesia: There is no information about the state of beekeeping knowledge of local Indonesian beekeepers (bee biology, hive management, threats, ...). Do they gain their knowledge from further generations, or is there another source (e.g. beekeeping training center). “Perum Perhutani” is a govermental organisation, that introduced a beekeeping program in 1974 and is located in central Java. The responsibilities reach from research and development (forage, breeding, honey bee health, hive management, feed supplement, ...) and training of rural beekeepers, to reengineering equipment for hive management, quality control, processing honey bee products and promoting bees to improve their reputation.