Niue a global sanctuary for bees

ALOFI – Niue could become a global bee sanctuary if the plans of two businessmen succeed.

Organiser Richard Duncan has embarked upon a fundraising campaign with Niue Honey Company’s Andy Cory with proceeds going towards bottling their product.

Duncan says the retail sales will be used to underwrite the creation of a sanctuary.

The initiative comes as the United States reported a 42 per cent mortality rate amongst its bee colonies.

“ Historically the bees were taken up there in the 1960s and so they’ve had this relative isolation. It’s sufficiently isolated.

“It’s the right size island. It has got the right topography, it’s easy to manage the bees and it’s got a small population.

“So with all those things if you are going to pick a place, Niue would be the ideal place to pick. It is big enough that you can circulate the bees around the island so you don’t get the inbreeding going but it is small enough that you can manage them all, you can get around, you can check them all and make sure you keep on top of inspections and all that sort of thing.

“All these things are important to make sure the bees are kept in the best health.

“There are 1000 hives now and you take about 30,000 bees a hive. Sustainably the island can carry about 4000 hives.

“Like anywhere in the Pacific, there’s a cyclone risk but we had that in about 2004 and we survived through it.

Duncan says the infrastructure for beekeeping is very minimal.

“It’s sufficient technology for what has been a small scale Pacific wholesale business but what really needs to happen is to upgrade the honey house facility and move from a traditional bulk wholesale business to a retail business.

“From the extra revenue that is gained from that process we’re hoping to reinvest back into Niue, back into helping out, upgrade biosecurity measures and helping the government with that.

Duncan says landowners get a payment for hive rental.

“Partly on the number of hives on their land, a fixed payment, and then a variable one depending on the productivity of the particular hive.

“That has created a sense of revenue sharing through this endeavour with the people of Niue. They’re custodians of these bees and that’s why we are shifting to this social enterprise model because we want to bring them more into this whole operation. The business grows, they get a return and therefore they take pride in protecting these bees.”