The Slow Fund: Supporting Research with Ujubee Project

This feature is part of our Slow Fund Series: projects and stories that highlight the communities we visit and how we give back. We established The Slow Fund to support innovative projects that are reflective of the regions that inspire them.

Whether through educational, cultural, or conservation and preservation initiatives, the Fund helps protect various forms of heritage and promotes the health of vibrant living cultures and the eco-systems that support them.

The Ujubee project is a conservation effort focused on recording scientific data on wild honeybee populations in South Africa. Unlike many parts of the world where bee populations are managed by humans and live in manufactured hives, South Africa is home to honeybee populations where 80% remain wild and an integral part of their habitat’s ecosystem.

This provides an opportunity to study their natural habitat and behaviour, contributing valuable research that can help honeybee populations around the globe.

In turn, Ujubee can take steps in order to protect the delicate biomes where these bees live, ensuring both the survival of the bees and the range of species their pollination helps to maintain—specifically, the fynbos region of South Africa, which is the smallest and most diverse floral kingdom in the world. Butterfield & Robinson is proud to support their research efforts.

When possible, we bring our travellers through these areas in the Western and Eastern Cape, led by an ecologist to explain the importance of biodiversity and habitat conservation.