In the mountains of northeastern Peru, a group of female beekeepers have plucked millions of bees from the jaws of death and saved their own livelihoods with the help of UN climate funding.
The women not only saved their beehives from extreme weather events linked to climate change, but also built a thriving honey business.
Chilal de la Merced, a village of about 800 inhabitants, located at an altitude of over 2,600 meters in the Andes, in the Cajamarca region of Peru, has been plagued in recent years by recurring heavy rains, drought, frost and hail storms associated with a changing climate and warming oceans.
The weather has wreaked havoc on the bees’ ability to forage for nectar and pollen.
At the beginning of 2022, the rain was so heavy that they no longer dared to leave the hive and began to starve.
“When we checked the hives, we found the boxes full of dead bees,” recalls Karina Villalobos, the 28-year-old spokeswoman for the beekeepers association Hojuelas de Miel (Honey Flakes).
A year earlier, she and fourteen other beekeepers had applied for a grant from Avanzar Rural, a program established by the Peruvian government and the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) to support small-scale food producers in rural areas vulnerable to climate change. to help. .
It almost didn’t work: climate change doesn’t wait for grant money, and even when money comes in, it takes time to implement projects.
Months after securing $27,000 in climate financing – a topic that will be central to discussions at the COP29 climate conference in Baku next month – they were looking doom in the face.
“We asked ourselves: what are we going to do? If we don’t take action, the bees will disappear, the project will collapse and our organization will fail,” said Villalobos.
– Syrup and lilies –
Bee populations around the world are seen as an indicator of healthy ecosystems, but experts warn they are becoming increasingly vulnerable to climate change, pesticide use and habitat loss.
Hojuelas de Miel decided to adapt to the changing weather cycles, which disrupted the flowering seasons and hindered the bees’ ability to collect nectar and pollen.
To compensate for the bees’ depleted food sources, the women fed them a syrupy mixture of sugar and vitamins.
But they also made plans for the future.
Using the grant, they surrounded the beehives with native plants and flowers, including arum lilies and coffee plants, which are more resistant to drought and rain.
As the plants grew, they transplanted them into the forest to expand the bees’ habitat.
– Uplifting rural communities –
Less than 2 percent of all international climate financing goes to rural communities, small-scale farmers and indigenous peoples, Juan Diego Ruiz, IFAD’s head of Andean and Southern Cone, told AFP.
In Peru, women in particular struggle to secure financing for their businesses.
“Since the owner of the land is the man, how can we get a loan?” Villalobos explained.
Yet women like her are “on the front lines of the impacts of climate change,” Ruiz argued.
Avanzar Rural has financed 1,031 small businesses in Peru over the past four years, serving 17,557 people.
IFAD has contributed $24 million, while the Peruvian state, which identifies projects in remote areas to support, is adding another $45 million.
Chilal de la Merced beekeepers had to cover 10 percent of the cost of their business plan ($3,800) before receiving a first tranche of aid, which they used to purchase equipment and hire technical, financial and environmental consultants.
The association currently operates 89 beehives and earns approximately $13,000 per year.
“Today we are powerful and resilient women,” Villalobos said proudly.
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