A major component is the development and marketing of new products in the local market.
If additional funds are accessed the group is prepared to upscale the project.
Policy Impact
It could lead to the declaration of Saint Lucia as a natural apiculture country.
Policy Influence
No documented impact at closure of project.
Linkages gef projects
None documented, However, other projects are learning from their lessons.
Inovative Financial Mechanisms
Not applicable.
Significant Participation of Indigenous Peoples
Not applicable.
Planning gef grant
Not at this time.
Promoting Public Awareness of Global Environment
The media will be used extensively as well as community meeting and workshops.
Notable Community Participation
The project focuses only on bee keepers.
Capacity - Building Component
There is a substantial capacity development component to help farmers make the transition to natural apiculture. Training will help introduce new methods as well as careful monitoring and recording of results. There will also be training in the development of new products or improvement of existing products for sale.
Project sustainability
This project covered the environmental. social and economic aspects of apiculture, which tends to give a higher probability of sustainability. The group undertook research, was trained in all the stages of apiculture, was trained in derivative livelihoods, participated in several public activities, established strong linkages, and was able to create a permanent revenue source for 5 alternatively abled persons. Most importantly, the group now understands the importance of continuous learning and despite the challenges they will encounter, we expect the group to overcome them.
Replication of project activities
This project has a high potential for replication. It is well documented and there was an independent end of project evaluation which captures the salient lessons learned.
Gender Focus
Women will also be trained as the group has a fairly large number of women in training to enter the industry.
Project Results
This project was the first project in the GEF SGP Saint Lucia portfolio which focused on the environment and the disabled or alternatively abled people. When we first engaged the group their capacity and capability were very low. The project was therefore designed with a number of objectives in mind, including, a strong capacity and capability component; a research component to determine the difference between conventional bee keeping and natural beekeeping; a derivative livelihoods component; a marketing component; a partnership building component; a public awareness component; and a small scale smart agriculture component.
By the end of the project, though the research component was incomplete, the overall outputs results were as follows: (i) natural bee keeping appears to be superior to commercial bee keeping practices, because the hives tend to have less mites, the mortality rate is lower, and the production over time tend to be higher and more sustainable; (ii) the group is now more knowledgeable on the dos and don?ts of natural beekeeping; (iii) 16 persons were trained in natural beekeeping with five of them establishing apiaries; (iv) a herbal farm was established during the first 15 months of the project using organic principles and methods; (v) the group established a Facebook page (BEE NATURAL) which has promoted their work locally, regionally and internationally; (vi) during project implementation 8 persons were employed part-time and the project created a permanent source of income for 5 members (2 women and 3 men) and (vii) additional and significant co-funding was raised from a regional organisation to establish a complete multi-source rain water harvesting system and more recently they have approached the Caribbean Development Bank for a significant grant for expansion. By the end of the project (2 years) the group?s income had increased by US$5354.00.
As the project ended, the group which operated on private property with permission was served two eviction notices within a one year period. They are now in negotiations with the Crown Lands Department of the Government of Saint Lucia to lease alternative lands.
Lessons learned were many and varied, but the most important ones were as follows:
(i) Investment of time and resources in natural apiculture builds the resilience of hives to the
many risks from climate change;
(ii) Continued research is required to learn about the behaviour of bees in a climate change
context, which will allow managers to help hives to improve their survivability.
(iii) Skills and overall capacity development is a continuous process.
(iv) Derivative livelihoods and outputs must be developed and expanded to meet market demand
over time and create a sustained income source; and
(v) Group cohesion requires meeting personal and group needs as well as an effective and timely
communication system
Finally, in three Vulnerability Reduction Adaptation (VRA) sessions, completed at the beginning, at the middle and end of the project, the VRA scores varied from 3.25 to 2.48 and to 3.21. These scores demonstrated that members were optimistic about their resilience at the beginning of the project, but as they learned about their own limitations their assessment became more realistic and by the end of the project they had arrived at a more truthful assessment of their resilience to CC. This exercise helped them to focus on the areas which they need to work on to improve their resilience.
