When eight mataqali (traditional landowning clan or group within the Fijian community) from the Drawa community came together in 2015 to start a forest-based climate change project, five of them also took the opportunity to jointly develop a community-based business with the aim of creating a specific product: rainforest honey.

Some of the villagers had already received some training in beekeeping from the Fiji government. They felt that a honey business would provide alternative sources of income for their communities and families, alongside the sale of carbon credits. At the same time, the nearby Drawa rainforest would be protected from logging.

Ten years later - and despite some challenges along the way - the honey from Drawa is as pure as ever, nourished by the flowers of the rainforest and nearby gardens. Now the project owners are ready to expand their honey business.

A company owned by the community

Drawa's honey project and operations are run by the Drawa Block Forest Community Cooperative (DBFCC), the community-owned entity that also manages Drawa's climate change project.

As the model for selling carbon credits was still under development in 2015, a start-up grant from the New Zealand government helped the cooperative to set up hives in five mataqali, build a storage facility and buy equipment to process the honey.

Once the climate project was verified and income from the purchase of carbon credits started to flow in 2018, the cooperative was able to use this income to buy raw honey from the honey-producing mataqali clans. A model that has continued since then.

The DBFCC is also responsible for processing, bottling, marketing and selling the honey - the revenue is reinvested in the cooperative to cover the land rent for the storage facility and ongoing payments to the honey producers for the raw honey each season.

Sometimes the cooperative hires honey farmers like Ani Matamosi and Vilomena Tagiteci (pictured below) from the village of Batiri to extract and process the honey, especially in years of abundant harvest.

When the honey flows

The honey harvesting season starts in June and can last until December. DBFCC Business Manager Waita Curuvale (pictured below) says that although the mile-a-minute flower (dipogon lignosus) is not the bees' main food, it is the primary indicator for honey farmers that there is honey in the hives.

"When the 'mile-a-minute' starts flowering, the honey flow starts," says Waita. "The bees also feed on all the fruit trees [in the gardens] and on the flowering fruit trees in the rainforest."

Once the frames of raw honey have been carefully removed from the hives using smoke to keep the bees away, the honey producers take their honey to the processing facility located in the cooperative's headquarters just outside the village of Batiri.

It's a short walk from the Batiri hives to the honey processing plant. But other mataqali - who stretch all the way up to Drawa village - have to transport their honey by truck.

Processing the honey

Extracting honey from the hives is the first step in making Drawa rainforest honey. Waita explains the process:

"From a full hive we can produce 20 kilograms of honey, from a half-full one it's around 10 kilograms," she says.

"After the producers harvest the honey, the cooperative members will extract the honey. The women do it because they are perfect for it ... and sometimes, if the season is good, we hire women from more mataqali to help."

"We leave the honey for two weeks to sink and for the moisture to come up, then we wipe off the moisture. When there is no longer any white foam on top of the honey and when the moisture percentage is less than 20%, then it is a good time to bottle."

The Drawa cooperative has a small but established market through the Live and Learn network in Fiji, the Pacific Community and a wholesaler from Suva who always buys honey in large quantities.

"Our customers choose it because it is pure honey. Once they try it, they only want Drawa honey," says Waita.

Once the honey is bottled, labeled and sent to market, it can be sold for $10 for 250 ml, $20 for 750 ml or $18 per kilo when bought in large quantities.

But, Waita explains, some is also reserved and sold in small 50-cent packs to local communities and other nearby villages on Vanua Levu.

Challenges along the way

Drawa honey is among the best in Fiji, but producing honey in a tropical climate brings challenges. The biggest for Drawa has been cyclones.

The honey project started with five participating mataqali and around 25 hives in each village, but two devastating tropical cyclones and invasive varroa mites have recently destroyed many of the hives. By 2024, only two mataqali, Batiri and Lutukina, were able to provide honey for sale - both with fewer hives.

"The hives were destroyed by cyclones Yasa and Ana in 2020 and 2021," says Waita. "Another thing was the varroa mite. Biosecurity was there checking, and they burned boxes themselves. Not only ours, but also other [honey] producers' hives."

This is a challenge that the DBFCC is keen to address, and the cooperative is now looking for ways to support the revival of the honey business and bring back committed honey farmers who lost hives in the project.

"They already have the knowledge, the workforce is there," says Jerry (below). "It's just the hives that were destroyed by Yasa."

Next steps on the road

Rainforest honey as an alternative source of income is important to the Mataqali clans involved in the Drawa Forest Carbon project. Currently, the Drawa Block Forest Community Cooperative is seeking support and grant opportunities that will allow them to further rebuild the honey business and continue to provide their customers with the famous Drawa honey.

The Nakau Drawa Forest Project is currently supported by Climate Resilient by Nature, an initiative of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Aid and WWF-Australia, and implemented by Nakau and Live and Learn.

Drawa's honey business was established with the support of the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Link to original text.