Our True Heritage: Living in Right Relation with the Wild

Our True Heritage: Living in Right Relation with the Wild

When Greenwashing Kills: The False Promise of Beekeeping for Rural Communities

Wild honeybees are not resources. They are beings with their own wisdom, finely tuned by millions of years of evolution to survive, reproduce, and sustain the landscapes they inhabit. Their natural rhythms — the timing of their breeding, the careful selection of safe nest sites, the balance with other pollinators — are critical to the health of ecosystems.

Human interference, even under the guise of “helping,” disrupts this delicate balance. Artificial hives, harmful artificial food supplementation, and unnaturally high colony densities strip bees of their knowledge. They are forced to produce more honey than they would naturally and to breed in ways that undermine both their survival and the survival of other pollinators.

Yet, in South Africa, a troubling trend has emerged: companies promoting honey exploitation as a boon for rural communities. They frame their operations as ethical, sustainable, or community-focused, often featuring smiling farmers and “green” narratives. In reality, these initiatives prioritize profit. Rural communities are used as a front to access the honey — and the honey alone. Questions of ecological impact, pollinator diversity, or the well-being of wild bees are rarely considered.

There is also a crucial question that is almost never asked: where do all of these honeybee colonies come from? Extracting colonies from the wild is illegal. Artificially breeding large numbers of colonies is irresponsible, creating densities far beyond what ecosystems can sustain and placing huge pressure on other pollinators. These bees are then housed in materials never chosen by wild bees — including concrete or synthetic “fireproof” hives that may emit harmful substances when heated. Such practices remove bees from their evolutionary wisdom and impose human short-sightedness in its place.

Even on a practical level, the promises collapse. Studies suggest that to provide for a single family, 300 to 400 hives would be required — a scale far beyond the capacity of most rural households. Where would the bees find enough healthy pollen and nectar? How would they cope with disease while confined to artificial hives, and displacement? The reality is that these schemes are not designed for ecological or human wellbeing — they are designed for honey extraction and profit.

True ethical action begins with respect: recognizing bees as wild beings with needs and rights, not as commodities. Protecting wild bees, supporting pollinator diversity, understanding the carrying capacities of each biome, and listening to their rhythms is far more urgent than any greenwashed promise of economic benefit. Rural communities deserve genuine support too — but that support must come without exploiting Nature, without coercing wild animals into human systems, forcing them against their wild wisdom, and without pretending that profit equals sustainability.

The question we must ask is simple: how can we help humans without harming bees or Nature? Every “sustainable” honey initiative risks destroying both wild bees and the very communities it claims to support.

True heritage lies not in exploiting, but in protecting the wild, honoring the wisdom of the bees, and fostering coexistence between humans and nature.