[News] from [guardian.co.uk]
[News > World news > Ethiopia]
White honey grows scarce as bees abandon Ethiopia's parched peaks
｛白蜜が希少に、蜂がエチオピアの乾き切った山々を去る｝
Drought forces bees into valleys in search of flowers, meaning they produce yellow honey
Alex Duval Smith, Ethiopia
The Observer, Sunday 18 April 2010
Article history
The truffle of the apiary world – rare white honey from Ethiopia's highest peaks – is in danger of disappearing, according to beekeepers in the Tigray region. "No rain for the flowers,'' said Ashenaf Abera as he stood on his rocky, parched slope in the northern Ethiopian region whose famine inspired Bob Geldof to stage Live Aid in 1985. "The bees need high-altitude flowers for the white honey. When they cannot find them, they go to other plants and produce yellow honey.''
Abera is paid £65 a month to mind 270 hives for the Asira Metira monastery, one of a dozen religious centres in an area whose 4th-century rock churches are among the wonders of the world. "We know about bees,'' said honey seller Sheikh Mohamed Ahamedin. He grips a large screwdriver with both hands to ladle a dollop of thick and lumpy white honey out of a plastic bucket. It is snow-white and tastes sweet and more waxy than yellow honey.
"The price is the highest it has ever been this year, because of scarcity,'' said Ahamedin who sells white honey for £7.75 per kilo. Last year he charged £4.50. Ethiopia is Africa's biggest honey producer and the world's fourth biggest beeswax exporter. After coffee, gold and cowhide, bee products are major contributors to the economy, especially through exports to Italy, where white honey is considered a delicacy. Bees' products are the only export item produced by Tigray's impoverished 4.6 million people, whose region is said to be one of the worst-hit in the world by climate change.
Such is Ethiopians' love of honey that apitherapy clinics offer treatments for many ailments. The national drink is tej – honey mead.
Beekeepers are increasingly scrapping traditional mud hives for square box-like hives from Europe which produce a higher yield. "The bees will not make white honey in the modern hives, but at least with them we can obtain a decent yield of yellow honey,'' he said.
The region's bee population is also in decline, with climate change and deforestation to blame. Tigray was a wealthy, lush region 150 years ago when its king, Johannes IV, brought a carpenter from Italy to fashion his imposing throne from local juniper wood. But wars with Italy, Egypt, Sudan and neighbouring Eritrea led to deforestation. '"Without the trees, the rainwater – which seems to be declining – does not run off the limestone in a useful way. That is why we end up with a landscape of rocks and little else,'' said local water expert Leul Fisseha.
[Business > Anglo American]
Anglo American under fire for prospecting in the Alaskan wilderness
｛英国系米国人、アラスカの野生荒廃で非難される｝
Alaskan tribal leaders say open-pit mine will endanger valuable salmon habitat
John Stevens
The Observer, Sunday 18 April 2010
Article history
Anglo American, the London-listed mining group, will this week face accusations that it risks damaging one of the world's most valuable salmon habitats.
Alaskan tribal leaders and fishermen will come to London on Thursday to tell the company's annual meeting that plans to build an open-pit gold and copper mine in the Bristol Bay region will destroy the breeding grounds of sockeye salmon.
They claim that mining the ore deposit, which is located underneath some of the most important salmon spawning grounds, will generate as much as 10bn tonnes of mine waste and require 160bn litres (35bn gallons) of water to be taken from rivers.
Bobby Andrew, a spokesman for Nunamta Aulukestai, a group representing eight local villages, said that he hopes to persuade shareholders to reconsider the project.
"We do not trust that they [Anglo American] will work in an environmentally safe way," he said. "I am not opposed to mining, but the mine is in a wrong location. We, the people who live here, rely on the renewable resource of salmon."
The mine's opponents have already won the support of large businesses in the UK and overseas. Six UK jewellers, including Goldsmiths and Beaverbrooks, have joined eight US retailers, led by Tiffany & Co, which have pledged not to source gold from the proposed mine.
However, Anglo American has said that it will pursue the development only if it can be operated responsibly.
James Wyatt-Tilby, a company spokesman, said: "At the moment this is just an exploration project and there is no mine plan at this stage. We have been very clear that if we cannot build this mine in a safe and responsible way then we will not build it at all."
The protest follows a string of revolts at annual meetings by environmentally aware investors. Last week, BP faced a call from several large investors to review its oil sands activities. A similar shareholder resolution will be voted on at Shell's annual meeting, to be held on 18 May.
[News > World news > Ethiopia]
White honey grows scarce as bees abandon Ethiopia's parched peaks
｛白蜜が希少に、蜂がエチオピアの乾き切った山々を去る｝
Drought forces bees into valleys in search of flowers, meaning they produce yellow honey
Alex Duval Smith, Ethiopia
The Observer, Sunday 18 April 2010
Article history
The truffle of the apiary world – rare white honey from Ethiopia's highest peaks – is in danger of disappearing, according to beekeepers in the Tigray region. "No rain for the flowers,'' said Ashenaf Abera as he stood on his rocky, parched slope in the northern Ethiopian region whose famine inspired Bob Geldof to stage Live Aid in 1985. "The bees need high-altitude flowers for the white honey. When they cannot find them, they go to other plants and produce yellow honey.''
Abera is paid £65 a month to mind 270 hives for the Asira Metira monastery, one of a dozen religious centres in an area whose 4th-century rock churches are among the wonders of the world. "We know about bees,'' said honey seller Sheikh Mohamed Ahamedin. He grips a large screwdriver with both hands to ladle a dollop of thick and lumpy white honey out of a plastic bucket. It is snow-white and tastes sweet and more waxy than yellow honey.
"The price is the highest it has ever been this year, because of scarcity,'' said Ahamedin who sells white honey for £7.75 per kilo. Last year he charged £4.50. Ethiopia is Africa's biggest honey producer and the world's fourth biggest beeswax exporter. After coffee, gold and cowhide, bee products are major contributors to the economy, especially through exports to Italy, where white honey is considered a delicacy. Bees' products are the only export item produced by Tigray's impoverished 4.6 million people, whose region is said to be one of the worst-hit in the world by climate change.
Such is Ethiopians' love of honey that apitherapy clinics offer treatments for many ailments. The national drink is tej – honey mead.
Beekeepers are increasingly scrapping traditional mud hives for square box-like hives from Europe which produce a higher yield. "The bees will not make white honey in the modern hives, but at least with them we can obtain a decent yield of yellow honey,'' he said.
The region's bee population is also in decline, with climate change and deforestation to blame. Tigray was a wealthy, lush region 150 years ago when its king, Johannes IV, brought a carpenter from Italy to fashion his imposing throne from local juniper wood. But wars with Italy, Egypt, Sudan and neighbouring Eritrea led to deforestation. '"Without the trees, the rainwater – which seems to be declining – does not run off the limestone in a useful way. That is why we end up with a landscape of rocks and little else,'' said local water expert Leul Fisseha.
[Business > Anglo American]
Anglo American under fire for prospecting in the Alaskan wilderness
｛英国系米国人、アラスカの野生荒廃で非難される｝
Alaskan tribal leaders say open-pit mine will endanger valuable salmon habitat
John Stevens
The Observer, Sunday 18 April 2010
Article history
Anglo American, the London-listed mining group, will this week face accusations that it risks damaging one of the world's most valuable salmon habitats.
Alaskan tribal leaders and fishermen will come to London on Thursday to tell the company's annual meeting that plans to build an open-pit gold and copper mine in the Bristol Bay region will destroy the breeding grounds of sockeye salmon.
They claim that mining the ore deposit, which is located underneath some of the most important salmon spawning grounds, will generate as much as 10bn tonnes of mine waste and require 160bn litres (35bn gallons) of water to be taken from rivers.
Bobby Andrew, a spokesman for Nunamta Aulukestai, a group representing eight local villages, said that he hopes to persuade shareholders to reconsider the project.
"We do not trust that they [Anglo American] will work in an environmentally safe way," he said. "I am not opposed to mining, but the mine is in a wrong location. We, the people who live here, rely on the renewable resource of salmon."
The mine's opponents have already won the support of large businesses in the UK and overseas. Six UK jewellers, including Goldsmiths and Beaverbrooks, have joined eight US retailers, led by Tiffany & Co, which have pledged not to source gold from the proposed mine.
However, Anglo American has said that it will pursue the development only if it can be operated responsibly.
James Wyatt-Tilby, a company spokesman, said: "At the moment this is just an exploration project and there is no mine plan at this stage. We have been very clear that if we cannot build this mine in a safe and responsible way then we will not build it at all."
The protest follows a string of revolts at annual meetings by environmentally aware investors. Last week, BP faced a call from several large investors to review its oil sands activities. A similar shareholder resolution will be voted on at Shell's annual meeting, to be held on 18 May.
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