Climate change decimating Yemen's bee farms

June 21, 2021 at 10:09 am | Published in: Middle East Monitorddd

Thomson Reuters Foundation

June 21, 2021 at 10:09 am

After driving for days on the rough roads of southern Yemen, Radwan Hizam finally reached the idyllic spot where he hoped his bees could feed from flowering Sidr trees to produce their world-renowned honey. But he was too late.

Unseasonal rains meant the Sidr trees had flowered early and their pale yellow petals had fallen away long before Hizam had unloaded his hives – leaving his bees hungry and decimating his annual production of Sidr honey.

Hizam said climate change was to blame.

"It was a huge loss," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, estimating that he had missed out on more than three-quarters of his expected honey output because of the flowering flop.

"Beekeeping is a family business, our main source of income, and a part of Yemen's culture. But it's being threatened by climate change," Hizam, 45, said from his home province of Taiz in southwestern Yemen.

War-torn Yemen has had its troubles compounded in recent years by recurrent droughts, increasing numbers of extremely hot days and more volatile rainfall – all prompted by climate change, according to its Environmental Protection Agency.

The impoverished Arabian Peninsula country experienced a 29 per cent increase in rainfall over the last 30 years and a rise of more than 0.5 degree Celsius in average temperatures, according to a 2015 analysis by the Climate Service Center Germany.

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That is hurting one of the country's most precious commodities: Sidr honey, which is produced by bees feeding off the nectar of the ancient tree, also known as the jujube.

Sidr honey is prized for its health benefits and sells outside Yemen for about $75 per 250 grammes.

Typically, beekeepers from around Yemen transport their hives by truck to Sidr groves for the annual flowering season, which lasts about a month.

But unseasonal rains caused by climate change are throwing off flowering seasons and threatening the livelihoods of Yemen's 100,000 beekeeping households, said a 2020 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report on Yemeni honey production.

Trees either bloom earlier than usual or unexpected downpours knock Sidr flowers off the branches before bees can get to their nectar.

Flash floods

Flash floods are also slashing honey production, said Fuad Ali, the head of the UNDP's Economic Development Unit in the city of Sanaa.

"Farmers and beekeepers used to have a traditional method of warning each other when a flood was coming in, which was to shoot into the air in particular patterns. But now the floods are too sudden for them to have enough time to warn each other," he said.

Flash flooding across seven provinces in 2016 wiped out many beehives, said Abdullah Nasher, the head of Yemen's Beekeeping Association.

Droughts during the winter in northern Yemen hurt beekeepers there, too.

"This disorients the beekeepers; they lose out on the season in its entirety and on their production," Nasher said.