Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
17
Agrodiversity within and without
conserved forests for enhancing
rural livelihoods
Essie T. Blay, Benjamin D. Ofori, John Heloo, Joachim
B. Ofori, and Emmanuel Nartey
Background
In order to encourage
in-situ
conservation of biodiversity and retention of some
forest cover in agricultural areas, it is imperative to ensure that the farmers derive
some economic livelihood from conserved forests. A key strategy in this regard is
integration of commercial activities into the conserved forest. Among the major
candidate ventures in Ghana are:
•
apiculture or keeping of bees for honey and related products
•
snail rearing
•
grasscutter production
•
yam cultivation within the conserved forest, or outside it, as may be the case.
This chapter discusses these activities on the basis of PLEC research work in
Ghana.
Apiculture in conserved forests
Income generation from honey is an age-old practice in rural areas of Ghana.
Various traditional methods of beekeeping exist countrywide. Honey-hunters trad-
itionally comb beehives of wild bees in branches of trees in the forest, dead tree
trunks, caves, eaves of houses, etc. for honey that is used in the home or sold for
direct consumption or medicinal purposes.
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