Abstract

The study was conducted in Gemachis forest from October 2019 to November 2020, which is an important area of biodiversity conservation, tourism and carbon sequestration for modulating climate change. The forest is also very important for honey production and other non-timber forest products. The study was designed with the objective of assessing honey production system, honey bee flora diversity and assessing of honey quality of forest. From study district, two rural kebeles surrounding the Gemachis forest, 29 beekeepers were selected using purposive sampling techniques. For the inventory of bee forages a transect line were made in three selected altitudinal strata. Honey samples, were obtained from the three agro ecologies of the forest: Arer, Chafe kebene and Sororo. The pollen spectrum of the honey was analyzed to determine the botanical and geographical origin of the honey. The quality parameters considered were, Moisture content, ASH, HMF, Free Acidity, and PH. According to inventory of the honeybee flora forty-eight (48) bee plant species were identified; belonging to 33 families of which Fabaceae, Roseaceae and Verbenaceae were the most frequent families in the study area. Among these bee forages 54.1% were shrub 16.6% were trees and 29.1% were herbs. From identified bee forages, Solanium spp, Andropogon abyssinica, Guizotia spp and Hypoestes forskaolii were the most abundant bee flora species in the study area. The pollen analysis of honey revealed that, two types of monofloral honey types were identified in the area which includes Guizotia spp and Eucalyptus globulus accounting for 74.9% and 54.9% pollen frequency respectively. The analysis of honey quality indicated that moisture content was higher in honeys from chafe kebena than honeys from the other two sites with a mean value of 22.3%. The hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) content was very low and ranged between 0.7 and 11.00 mg kg-1. Except for the moisture content, results produced in Gemachis forest present excellent quality parameters according to international standards. Majority (82.8%) of the beekeepers owned the traditional hives and only 3.4% of the beekeepers owned moveable frame hives. The average beekeeping experience of the beekeepers was 11.24 years with the range varying from 1 to 30 years. Pesticides, honey bee enemies, disease and drought were the major constraints of beekeeping in the area. Thus, beekeepers should adopt modern beekeeping technology and conserve the forest for sustainable honey production since the forest is endowed with good bee plant diversity.