Honey production almost doubled in Pakistan after country’s tree-plantation push
In the last five years, Pakistan planted around 3.5 million trees in Changa Manga, one of the world’s largest man-made forests located near Lahore in an effort to offset the impact of climate change in the country. Tree plantation in Changa Manga was started around five years ago with an aim to bring back life to the forest that has been destroyed by illegal logging and fires.
After five years of hard work, the forest has grown significantly and that’s not only helping the climate change cause but also contributing to an unexpected benefit, Honey production. Tree plantation helped the local bee and honey production. Local beekeepers expressed happiness over significant growth as the amount of honey harvested in Changa Manga almost doubled in the fiscal year 2019–2020. According to a local forest officer, Shahid Tabassum, the amount of honey harvested jumped from 725 kg in 2018–2019 to almost 1300 kg in 2019–2020. Tabassum also mentioned that there were only three main species of trees in the Changa Manga forest before 2015 but now at least seven more species have been added.
According to a recent study, there has been a rapid decrease in bee numbers around the world, mainly due to deforestation, climate change, and intensive agriculture. The economy of Pakistan is struggling with crashing GDP, higher inflation numbers, rising debt, and credit crunch. The country is working hard to increase exports to cut the trade deficit. Pakistan’s shrinking export is a big concern for the economy as the country battles hard with Coronavirus pandemic that decreased the exports and foreign remittances even further. But, there is one small but bright spot in the dark, and that’s the rising number of honey exports.
Pakistan’s Honeybee Research Institute in Islamabad posted honey export numbers for the fiscal year 2018–2019, Pakistan exported honey worth 966 million Pakistani rupees (PKR) in 2018–2019, around 260 million PKR more than a year ago. Analysts expect more than 1.2 billion PKR worth of honey export in 2020 as the production increased significantly. Pakistan’s “Billion Tree Tsunami” launched in 2014 is a massive initiative to fight not only climate change and environmental issues but an essential project to give employment as well as to provide an opportunity to beekeepers to increase honey production. Pakistan must take Changa Manga as a successful example to expand the concept to different parts of the country
