The Sound of Opportunity

How Beekeeping Is Creating Income, Community, and Confidence in Rural Liberia

Bea with his new beekeeping kit.

"I can tell when the bees are angry by the sound they make. I’ve learned to treat them with care. Because if I harm them, I harm myself.”

Bea Valmu says this with a quiet confidence. He is a young man from Banga, Bong County, a rural community in Liberia where steady income is hard to find and most people piece together a living from whatever work is available.

A year ago, he had never kept a hive. Now he talks about his bees as if they are his friends.

How the Beekeeping Network Grows

Bea first heard about beekeeping through his local association, which connected him with an experienced beekeeper trained through a UOF program. 

This type of community initiated connection is how the beekeeper network in Liberia has expanded from an industry of 10 to 5,000+ beekeepers. Experienced beekeepers bring new people in, teach them how to build and set hives, and provide the top bars needed to get started. The new beekeeper brings the wood and a place to put the hive. If the hive produces honey, they split the harvest in a fee sharing mechanism. 

“When you live in a rural place, you have to piece your income together,” he says. “I’ve attended other kinds of livlihood trainings, but the support was never there. They show you something, then leave. With beekeeping, it’s different.”

With his training, Bea built his hive, showed up consistently, met with his mentor and earned an invitation to our Annual National Beekeeping Convention, where promising beekeepers gather for deeper training in hive management, pest control, and proper harvesting. It was the first training he attended that did not disappear when the workshop ended.

Bea at the annual beekeeping convention

What This Looks Like at Scale

Bea is one of hundreds of people whose beekeeping story is unfolding across Liberia right now.

In 2025, for example, we supported 4,386 beekeepers and trained 275 new beekeepers, who earned over $30,000 through honey sales to Liberia Pure -- creating income in communities where few other earning opportunities exist. Over time, the program has reached more than 5,000 beekeepers.  More of those results can be found on our Successes page.

The program also shows that livelihoods and conservation do not have to compete. The forests that shelter the bees are worth protecting too, and our beekeeping work is tied to conserving 871,472 acres of national parkland.

Bea receiving his certificate for his Level Up Beekeeping course

Want to Be Part of What Comes Next?

Bea built his hive with his own hands, has learned to read his bees by sound, and found in a small wooden box something most people spend years looking for in Liberia: work that is his, that grows with him, and that connects him to a wider community of people doing the same.

Donations help fund the training, equipment, and annual conventions that turn first-time beekeepers into experienced ones.

If you’d like to help more people like Bea get started, you can do that here.