2021 Lukluk (VSA) - Magazine - Page 7
Getting Tonga’s crops buzzing
Debra Allan never thought she’d
become a beekeeper, but that was
before her and Uili Lousi’s concern
about climate change and passion
for their Pacific home led them to
establish OHAI.
OHAI is an organisation located in
Nuku’alofa, Tonga. It is dedicated
to addressing the adverse effects
of climate change and promoting
resilience and capacity in the
country and one of the keys to
resilience is bees.
“There’s a strong connection
between bees and climate
change,” says Debra, “it’s a matter
of protecting our food security and
our export crops. We need bees to
have crop resilience.” Worldwide,
bees have been shown to increase
crop yields by more than 60%.
Uili adds “It’s a fundamental
question of how did we go about
choosing beekeeping as our
first and principal project? It was
because bees are very vulnerable
globally as well and have declined
in population in Tonga and without
bees, we have no crops.”
Having made the decision to
help the bees help Tonga’s food
security, Uili and Debra worked
on recruiting veteran beekeeper
Lopeti Cocker. They describe him
as the saviour of Tongan bees.
Above: Lopeti Cocker, Debra Allan, and David Cramp onsite
Left page: Beekeepers in Tonga
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