Honey Production and Climate Change: Beekeepers’ Perceptions, Farm Adaptation Strategies, and Information Needs

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Most crops grown globally require pollination to produce food, and honey bees are the most important pollinators. Without honey bees, the food supply would decrease and become more expensive. Climate change threatens honey bees by destroying their habitats and food sources. Therefore, beekeepers must implement farm management practices to adapt to climate change. However, in many developing countries, such as El Salvador, beekeepers lack information about climate change adaptation strategies. In this study, researchers interviewed nine Salvadoran beekeepers to understand how their perception of climate change affects their beekeeping production, the adaptation strategies they implement, and their needs for climate change-related information about beekeeping. The climate change-induced challenges beekeepers experienced included food and water scarcity and extreme weather events (e.g., increase in temperature, rain, and winds). As a result, honey bees are dying because they cannot find enough to eat/drink, their hives are damaged, and they are more prone to pests and diseases. To adapt, beekeepers reinforce their beehive boxes, relocate their beehives, and supplement the honey bees’ food. The beekeepers expressed their need for help formulating supplementary honey bee diets and managing pests and diseases. Because they struggled to understand climate change-related information from the internet, they need information and demonstrations from local sources to improve their adaptation strategies and the health and productivity of their honey bees. ABSTRACT: Because climate change has severely impacted global bee populations by depleting their habitats and food sources, beekeepers must implement management practices to adapt to changing climates. However, beekeepers in El Salvador lack information about necessary climate change adaptation strategies. This study explored Salvadoran beekeepers’ experiences adapting to climate change. The researchers used a phenomenological case study approach and conducted semi-structured interviews with nine Salvadoran beekeepers who were members of The Cooperative Association for Marketing, Production, Savings, and Credit of Beekeepers of Chalatenango (ACCOPIDECHA). The beekeepers perceived water and food scarcity, as well as extreme weather events (e.g., increasing temperature, rain, winds), as the leading climate change-induced challenges to their production. Such challenges have augmented their honey bees’ physiological need for water, limited their movement patterns, decreased apiary safety, and increased the incidence of pests and diseases, all of which have led to honey bee mortality. The beekeepers shared adaptation strategies, including box modification, apiary relocation, and food supplementation. Although most beekeepers accessed climate change information using the internet, they struggled to understand and apply pertinent information unless they received it from trusted ACCOPIDECHA personnel. Salvadoran beekeepers require information and demonstrations to improve their climate change adaptation strategies and implement new ones to address the challenges they experience.