This document summarizes regional forest honey initiatives in Asia and proposes a collective marketing strategy. It discusses: 1) Background on forest honey production and cooperatives in several Asian countries. 2) Madhu Duniya, a conference that brings together forest honey stakeholders every 4 years to discuss trends, challenges and opportunities. 3) The proposed Forest Harvest Collective Mark, a collective trademark that would distinguish community-produced forest honey and guarantee its traceable and sustainable sources. 4) An initial pilot project characterizing honey from Sumbawa, Indonesia to demonstrate the collective mark's benefits.

1. Regional Forest Honey Initiatives:
Madhu Duniya &
Forest Harvest Collective Mark
Crissy Guerrero, NTFP-EP Asia
Presented at the National Workshop on Lao Forest Honey, Xiengkhuang, Lao PDR, May 21-24, 2018

2. Background of
Forest Honey in Asia
• Forest honey supports incomes of hundreds of
thousands of forest dependents in Asia.
• The sector has the potential to protect over 7 million
hectares of community forests in South and Southeast
Asia through bee habitat conservation.
• Production capacity of forest honey annually in South
and Southeast Asia is estimated at about 2000 tons.
• If properly supported the sector has the potential to
contribute 13 million USD to the Asian economy, not
including possible contributions to Europe and other
continents.

3. Cambodia
• formed in 2010 and registered in Ministry of
Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery (MaFF)
• Working in 6 provinces
• Supporting 21 honey group members
• 635 harvesters (2,540 members).
• Producing on average 4 tons in a year
• Products: Honey, Lip Balm, Dry Skin Balm, Honey
soap with turmeric, coffee, pepper, ylang ylang)
CBHE

4. Philippines
• Conceptualized in 2012, 1st National Conference2014
• Working in 8 provinces
• 11 honey gatherer/ producer groups (577 harvesters)
producing an average of 10 tons/year
• Bees supported: Apis dorsata, stingless
• Accomplishments: logo registered with IPO, protocols,
standards finalized, applied, working with slow food
movement

5. • Formed in 2005, 10 members,8 provinces
• Supporting over 1200 honey producers, average 24
tons/ year
• Partnerships with large distributors such as AMWAY
and Oriflame
• Partners have received organic certification,
Geographic Indications certificate.
• Participatory guarantee systems (PGS) and eco-
labeling to increase credibility, traceability
• Products: honey, candles, soap, beeswax, bee bread
Indonesia
Jaringan
Madu Hutan
Indonesia

6. • Bee Research Development Center(BRDC)
1. More than 330 beekeeping courses with Apis cerana bees (in 330
communes), More than 9,300 trainees ( about 25% were
women), 120 beekeeping extension workers, among them 30%
were women.
2. 65% trainees kept bees successfully, some of them become
professional beekeeper. Their annual Honey production estimates
more than 200 tons.
3. Three course for 90 Honey hunters
in Melaleuca leucadendrone forest.
• Mountain Bee Development Company
• 4 training courses for 115 beekeepers keeping Apis
cerana in three communes and one district Ha Tinh
• Southern Institute for Ecology (SIE) and MBDC support to honey
hunters in An Toan National park
Vietnam

7. • Keystone started working with honey
producers in the Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu
since 1993
• Developed 3 production centers (50
women workers)
• 1000 honey producer supplies
• Producing 10 tons of honey / year
• Since then created Last Forest Enterprise
• LFE Pioneer in product
development and design
India

8. Madhu
| mə.d̪ʱuː|
[ Sanskrit ] ‘Honey’
Duniya
|ˈdʊnjæː | - [ Arabic ]
‘World’

9. Madhu Duniya
• Madhu Duniya, the largest gathering of Asian Forest
Honey producers, scientists, supporters and private
sector players in the world
• Held every Four Years (2007, 2011, 2015, 2019)
• It aims to gather various stakeholders to discuss
growing trends, challenges and opportunities and
share technical and practical knowledge and expertise
on forest honey.
• It seeks to be the platform to promote forest honey as
crucial for rural incomes, key for forest conservation and
as important for human health around the world and in
Asia.

10. India (2007)
• 7 countries participating
• a platform for Apis dorsata
and Apis cerana forest
honey collectors and their
supporters for a “pressure
cooker” exchange of ancient
traditions, global
development, and the new
approaches and appropriate
technologies for honey.

11. • First scientific forum
• Took up political issues
such as “honey
laundering”
• Breakthrough with the
agreement of National
Park to allow honey
harvesting in the
Protected Area
Indonesia
(2011)

12. • Participated by 200
individuals representing
diverse stakeholder
organizations from 7
countries
• Policy talk show
• Scientific forum
• Product Development
• Honey cocktails
• Media coverage
Cambodia
(2015)

13. • Meeting to be held in
October 2019 in
Subic and Botolan,
Zambales,
Philippines
Philippines
(2019)
• Scientific forum
• Policy dialogue
• Product development and
innovation sessions
• Exhibition
• Product and technology
fair
• Network
• Field visit on sustainable
forest honey harvesting

14. A collective trademark

15. Regional Markets: Large Potential in Asia
• East and South Asia markets are seen as important and
substantial markets especially for high quality and attractively
packaged honey.
• In 2013, East/Southeast Asian countries imported
approximately 4400 tons of premium honey (11 – 21
USD/Kg) with a total amount of 64M USD.
• E/SE Asia imported 225 Million USD worth of natural honey
in 2012. 50% of this was from inter-regional trade and others,
while half were imported from temperate regions.
• Japan, China, Hong Kong, Singapore make 76% of the
East/Southeast Asia Market
• Indonesia was the 5th ranked Argentine honey export
destination

16. Market Concerns about Forest Honey
• No distinction between the imported beekeeping honey,
wild honey or forest honey in the market.
• Honey gathered from beekeeping boxes (regardless of
bee origin) but placed in the forest are also referred to
as Forest Honey.
• Wild or forest honey are mostly sold in local markets,
where there is a long tradition of use and there is
already an existing knowledge and appreciation for it.
There is need for differentiation between honey from
imported bees & forest honey from native bees! We
need traceability, credibility and commitment to quality
We can do it through a COLLECTIVE MARK!

17. A collective mark is a distinctive sign
or seal that distinguishes products or
services of members of a group or
organization, that meet the standards
and characteristics pre-established
by the owner of the mark.
What is a Collective Mark?

18. Why a collective mark?
• To highlight a common quality, which is
products from natural forests, harvested in
a sustainable way.
• To differentiate ourselves from other
natural products.
• To attach a value to products coming
from sustainable forests.
• To demonstrate evidence that the
products are indeed coming from forests
and are sustainable.
• To pool our marketing efforts to have a
stronger impact in the market.

19. Forest Harvest is a collective mark that aims to highlight
the forest source and sustainability of community
produced NTFPs of Asia. It covers all non-timber forest
products that are harvested from natural forests, whether
from the wild or already cultivated sources. The
mark guarantees that the products meet three
parameters:
• Traceable Forest Source: Using Participatory
Guarantee Systems (PGS) or other monitoring
systems in place, the product or the material used can
be traced back to well-managed community forest,
whether wild or cultivated in home gardens of forest-
based communities.
• Sustainable: NTFP Collection has been done
according to the agreed sustainable harvesting
protocol for the product.
• Good quality: The product meets production and
quality standards of the market, unless a different
standard is agreed upon by the members.

20. Sumbawa (JMHS) pilot:
Honey characterization study
• JMHS honey was chosen for the first pilot for
FHCM
• Sumbawa Island is already well known as the
Honey island and has Geographical indications
(GI) recognition
• Sumbawa honey was also tested as being able to
fight bacteria (E coli) at par with manuka
(Kartikasari, 2013) and to provide anti-aging
benefits (Kartikasari, 2015) . Thus a
characterization study is being done to determine
what bioactive compounds can be found in the
nectar sources of flowering trees in Sumbawa.

21. Sumbawa (JMHS) pilot:
Honey characterization study
• Such information can be used to promote health
and medicinal benefits of forest honey
• JMHS honey is set to be the first honey to be sold
with Forest Harvest Collective Mark (FHCM) in
Singapore

22. Call to work together in the region
• In creating a niche
for forest honey
• Joint resource
mobilization for
research and
development and
implementation of
FHCM

23. Looking forward to working
with Laos partners in
collective initiatives!
THANK YOU!
See you in the Philippines!