An iconic traditional apiculture of park fringe communities of Borena Sayint National Park, north eastern Ethiopia.
BACKGROUND
Traditional apiculture has been practised in Ethiopia over a long historical period and still remains a benign means to extract direct benefits from natural ecosystems. While its contribution to economic development and watershed protection is increasingly recognized its cultural significance is however, seldom noticed. This study was conducted using an ethnobotanical study approach to document the honey bee flora and associated indigenous knowledge of local communities in Borena Sayint National Park (BSNP), north eastern Ethiopia.


METHODS
Data were collected from 170 informants through semi-structured interviews and guided field walks, focus group discussion with 37 informants and 14 key informants and analyzed using standard analytical tools including ranking, comparisons and multivariate analyses.


RESULTS
In total, 152 bee forage species in 133 genera and 74 families were documented. The Asteraceae and Rosaceae were represented with six species each over the other plant families. Percentage of mentions per species ranged between 76.9 and 13.5% for the most salient bee forage species. Dombeya torrida, Erica arborea, and Olinia rochetiana captured high community consensus as measured by rank order of popularity and designated as local appellation names of honey. Cluster analysis of priority ranking data showed relationships between key informants with respect to preferences, but ordination analysis did not indicate environmental proximity as a determinant of their responses. Five honey harvesting seasons occur each corresponding to the floral calendar of a dominant bee forage species that stipulate relocation of hives to appropriate locations within the national park.


CONCLUSIONS
The apicultural tradition is iconic with economic value and forming part of the local peoples' cultural identity apt to be preserved as a bequest for posterity.
Department of Biology, College of Natural Sciences, Wollo University, P.O. Box, 1145, Dessie, Ethiopia. adalhusm@gmail.com.
Hussien
H
Adal
Department of Plant Biology and Biodiversity Management, College of Natural Sciences, Addis Ababa University, P.O. Box, 3434, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. zemede.asfaw@aau.edu.et.
Zemede
Z
Asfaw
Department of Plant Biology and Biodiversity Management, College of Natural Sciences, Addis Ababa University, P.O. Box, 3434, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. zerihun_woldu@yahoo.com.
Zerihun
Z
Woldu
Department of Plant Biology and Biodiversity Management, College of Natural Sciences, Addis Ababa University, P.O. Box, 3434, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. sebseb.demissew@gmail.com.
Sebsebe
S
Demissew
Laboratory for Tropical and Subtropical Agriculture and Ethnobotany, Department of Plant Production, Faculty of Bio-Science Engineering, Ghent University, Coupure links 653, 9000, Ghent, Belgium. Patrick.VanDamme@ugent.be.|Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamycka 129, Prague 6, Suchdol, 165 21, Czech Republic. Patrick.VanDamme@ugent.be.
Patrick
P
van Damme
D000818:Animals; D056630:Beekeeping; D001516:Bees; D044822:Biodiversity; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D005002:Ethiopia; D019448:Ethnobotany; D035264:Flowers; D006722:Honey; D006801:Humans; D019359:Knowledge; D000068316:Parks, Recreational; D010944:Plants / Q000145:classification; D012621:Seasons