Hindukush Beekeeping – Indigenous Knowledge

Music; Ambience: Bee hive sounds

JM: As modern science expands its knowledge of the world around us, it continues to draw from the important resource of local indigenous peoples. I’m Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet. Scientists working with beekeepers in the Hindukush mountains of the Himalayas found out firsthand the value of a little indigenous knowledge. Local farmers kept a research team from poisoning themselves by warning them not to eat the spring harvest of red cliff honey. Farooq Ahmad works with beekeepers in the Hindukush.

FA: “Indigenous people they keep on transferring information from generation to generations. For example, we have very limited understanding about the use of this mountain cliff bee honey, the spring harvest is poisonous. If there was no interaction between us and the local farmers, we would have used that honey as a food.”

JM: After making the inquiries, Farooq and his team found out that local people use this red honey sparingly — not as a food, but as a medicine.

FA: “They use that spring honey in high mountain areas as a relaxant. And the color of the honey which is being harvested in spring – in those areas, between China and Nepal border – is red, it is red honey. It is intoxicated honey. And we are also in the process of analyzing this honey. This is the information which we got from farmers, and ah, we had no information about this.”

JM: We’ll learn more about Hindukush cliff honey in a future programs. If you’d like to hear about our new Pulse of the Planet CD, please visit our website at pulseplanet.com. Pulse of the Planet is presented with support provided by the National Science Foundation. I’m Jim Metzner.

Hindukush Beekeeping - Indigenous Knowledge

Indigenous people of the Himalayan Hindukush region offer valuable knowledge to scientists studying bees.

Air Date:11/30/2016

Scientist:

Transcript:

Hindukush Beekeeping - Indigenous Knowledge

Music; Ambience: Bee hive sounds

JM: As modern science expands its knowledge of the world around us, it continues to draw from the important resource of local indigenous peoples. I'm Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet. Scientists working with beekeepers in the Hindukush mountains of the Himalayas found out firsthand the value of a little indigenous knowledge. Local farmers kept a research team from poisoning themselves by warning them not to eat the spring harvest of red cliff honey. Farooq Ahmad works with beekeepers in the Hindukush.

FA: "Indigenous people they keep on transferring information from generation to generations. For example, we have very limited understanding about the use of this mountain cliff bee honey, the spring harvest is poisonous. If there was no interaction between us and the local farmers, we would have used that honey as a food."

JM: After making the inquiries, Farooq and his team found out that local people use this red honey sparingly -- not as a food, but as a medicine.

FA: "They use that spring honey in high mountain areas as a relaxant. And the color of the honey which is being harvested in spring - in those areas, between China and Nepal border - is red, it is red honey. It is intoxicated honey. And we are also in the process of analyzing this honey. This is the information which we got from farmers, and ah, we had no information about this."

JM: We'll learn more about Hindukush cliff honey in a future programs. If you'd like to hear about our new Pulse of the Planet CD, please visit our website at pulseplanet.com. Pulse of the Planet is presented with support provided by the National Science Foundation. I'm Jim Metzner.