Assessing the beekeeping activities as a source of income and environmental conservation: A case of Aghondi Village, Manyoni district, Singida region, Tanzania

Manyoni district has high beekeeping potential due to the presence of virgin forest (mainly miombo woodlands and Itigi thickets). Research project was carried out in Aghondi village in Manyoni district to assess beekeeping activities as a source of income and environmental conservation. The project were identified through community needs assessment, where during the research process both qualitative and quantitative together with Participatory Rural Appraisal research methodology, data collection tools such as interviews, observations, and focus group discussion were employed, that lead to prioritization and identification of the core problem. The project implementation was done based on the prioritization need and the evaluations which were done within six months after project phased out. Activities implemented was one day awareness creation to Aghondi community on beekeeping activities, This was followed by training of beekeepers groups members on project and financial management, training on existing beekeepers groups to increase knowledge of modern/commercial beekeeping, purchase of 20 modern and 30 log/bark hives and beekeeping kits. Conclusion, beekeeping is a good project for rural people whose they don’t have enough income. But it has been facing more challenges of more human activities within forests hence destroy them with their bee fodders. These situation had made the bees to escape hence lowering the honey production. The government should put more emphasis on setting by laws on protecting the forest