Do people still hunt wild honey?
Short answerTrue
Yes, in many places and by many methods — cliff harvesting in the Himalaya, rafter and board systems in Southeast Asia, licensed collecting in the Sundarbans, forest gathering across Africa. Almost all of it is contracting, and some of what appears in films is a paid demonstration rather than a subsistence harvest.
Where it continues
- The Himalaya, taking Apis laboriosa combs from cliff faces on rope ladders.
- The Sundarbans, where licensed collectors enter mangrove forest in a defined season.
- The Western Ghats, where Adivasi communities harvest rock-bee combs under cooperative protocols.
- Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam, where boards and rafters invite wild giant honey bees to build where they can be reached.
- Across Africa, from Congo basin forest gathering to Hadza honey collecting to Yao honey hunting with honeyguides.
- Northern Australia, where Aboriginal sugarbag harvesting continues.
Why it is declining
Forest loss, exclusion from protected areas, migration of young people to wage work, cheap sugar, and the loss of the customary tenure that made careful harvesting worthwhile. The pattern is consistent enough across regions to be a mechanism rather than a coincidence: where a harvester stops expecting to return to the same nest, both the practice and the restraint go.
Sources
- Asian Honey Bees: Biology, Conservation, and Human Interactions — Harvard University Press (2006) · Monograph
- Bees and their role in forest livelihoods — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2009) · Industry body
- The World History of Beekeeping and Honey Hunting — Routledge (1999) · Historical text
How sources are selected and weighted is set out in the sources and evidence policy.