Hidden dangers of hunting wild honey

(Baonghean) -In the lush green Pu Mat forests, among the countless benefits from the forest, honey bees are a precious resource that nature has bestowed upon humans. Every year, people in the mountainous district of Con Cuong collect thousands of liters of honey, bringing a considerable income to many families. But few people know that to get those liters of sweet honey, the honey collectors have to go through so much hardship and difficulty.

We arrived at Met village, Luc Da commune (Con Cuong), a village located near the forest edge of Pu Mat National Park, where people are famous for hunting wild bees for honey. For generations, "father to son", people have made a living by hunting wild bees for honey. Following Thao and some other villagers into the forest to find bees for honey, we were able to join an interesting, but no less difficult and dangerous, trip to the forest of wild honey hunters. The tools they brought were only a knife, a backpack, a matchbox or a lighter.

After 3 hours of wandering in the deep forest, wading through many streams, Mr. Thao's group of wild bee hunters discovered some bees going down the stream to find water. Everyone in the group attentively followed the direction of the bees' flight. According to Thao's judgment, the beehive was about 1km away as the crow flies. Our group lifted the trees and went through the forest. After more than 40 minutes of chasing, as predicted, about 1km from the stream, the group of workers found a honey bee nest hanging on a tree branch about 20 meters high. In a flash, the workers' work began. They quickly went to find dry branches to gather into torches, wrapped them with green leaves to create smoke, then assigned people to weave baskets to hold the beehive, and others to cut bamboo trees, take forest vines and tie them to the tree trunks to make ladders from the base up to the beehive. Anh Thao clung to the bamboo tree and climbed up, carrying a basket and a torch that had been lit, creating a thick, pungent smoke, waving it around the hive, the bees flew out of the hive drunk on the smoke. After 15 minutes, with 3-4 operations, the hive was gently lowered by the workers. The remaining work was just to squeeze the honey into a bottle to bring home. Anh Thao said, "It's not always that easy, there are times when I slip and fall dozens of meters. I know this job is very dangerous, but for the sake of food and clothing" ...

The job of collecting wild honey is not only hard but also life-threatening. In the mildest cases, you may be stung by bees, or sometimes when climbing high, the ladder rope breaks, or you slip and fall, causing lifelong injuries, and there are even cases of death. Anh Thao said: “Collecting honey from trees is still tolerable, but encountering beehives making honey on high cliffs is much more difficult and dangerous. If the bees make honey on the cliff, you have to climb to the top of the cliff, use forest vines to tie to the base of the tree, and then swing down to collect the honey. Knowing the danger, for the people of the mountains who live mainly on the forest, on the blessings of heaven and earth, and nature, they still have to venture into it.”

In the past, Con Cuong forest was still wild and dense, with many bee nests, "given by heaven", anyone could take them. But due to human impact, the forest is no longer the same as before. During the honey harvesting season, every day hundreds of people in the buffer zone of Pu Mat National Park go into the forest to burn bees and search for honey. The forest is increasingly encroached upon, affecting the living and developing environment of bees. Therefore, wild bees do not make as many nests as before, the bees have to go far into the deep forest, deep mountains, in the core area to make nests. Bee hunters must go deep into the forest to find honey bee nests. To get honey, hunters must bring fire into the forest to create smoke to drive away the bees. If the embers accidentally catch fire on the dry vegetation, the consequences will be unpredictable. The forest is at risk of fire at any time. Therefore, the method of burning bees for honey poses a high risk of forest fires, and wild bees are naturally exterminated.

Mr. Dang Dinh Xuan - Acting Head of the Forest Protection Department of Pu Mat National Park said: "The profession of burning bees in the forest has a very high risk of causing forest fires. We have regularly patrolled, controlled, and propagated to help people understand the unpredictable harm of exploiting wild honey. To reduce this situation, the relevant agencies also need to develop sustainable poverty reduction projects for the people, at the same time creating jobs and livelihoods for people to preserve the forest".

Pu Mat National Park – a world natural biosphere reserve in Western Nghe An is increasingly depleted. Authorities, local governments, especially forest rangers, need to take strong measures to control and prevent illegal forest exploitation activities, including beekeeping, to limit the risk of forest fires and preserve natural bees.

Bao Ngoc - Ba Hau (Con Cuong Radio)