A STANFORD honeybee sanctuary will soon benefit from an initiative that will encourage guests at a hotel group to adopt a hive.
Honeybee Heroes, founded by Chris Oosthuizen in 2020, has teamed up with the the Community Conservation Fund Africa (CCFA) in an effort to save honeybees. The honeybee sanctuary aims to conserve South Africa’s unique Cape honeybee species.
The CCFA is the non-profit subdivision of the eco-lodging Mantis Hotel Group. All guests that are hosted at any of the Mantis Lodges and resorts, will be offered the opportunity to adopt honey bee hives. “They’re very passionate about South African species and they channel that care into their work. More than that, they’re very action based,” Oosthuizen said about the collaboration.
At present, Mantis Hotel group houses hives at all of their lodges in the Eastern Cape. A total of nearly 1.5 million bees have already been relocated.
Executive director of the CCFA Didi Luden said, “This collaboration is a great way for guests to make a significant difference to the environment whilst also supporting local communities. There's a renewed sense of mindfulness towards the environment, wildlife and communities with travellers wanting to make a difference to the places they visit.”
Through sponsoring a hive for R2 000, guests will have their names added to the hive of their choice. In addition to this, they will receive a personalised certification of adoption, updates on their hive’s bees and the opportunity to visit Willowdale farm in the Overberg area to see their hive.
Bees are understood to play an indispensable role in the environment and their scarcity would cause a decline in the availability of fresh produce. Intensive farming, habitat loss and climate change have been named as threats to the life cycle of a bee.
Both parties have set long-term goals within the partnership to create a fully-equipped education centre at Mantis’ Founders Lodge in the Eastern Cape. Along with this, their objective is to launch a series of micro-apiaries that will be managed by residents there. “The more hives our hotel guests adopt, the quicker we can start developing those community micro-apiaries,” Luden added.
Oosthuizen said: “Honeybee Heroes is about bees and people. In South Africa, we share our land with these amazing creatures, and in Honeybee Heroes we have found a way to help bees and people thrive together.”
The CCFA and Honeybee Heroes Adopt-a-Hive’ collaboration launches in all Mantis Hotels worldwide on World Bee Day May 20. See www.honeybeeheroes.com