No honey, no money: Thai forager laments risks to bee hives from deforestation

A honey collector from Thailand who posts viral videos of his daring tree-climbing missions to reach bee hives has warned of the damage that mass fruit farming is doing to natural forests in the country’s north.

Pran Tee, an ethnic Karen with Thai nationality, has over 320,000 followers on his Facebook page ‘Pran Tee Chiang Mai’, who are drawn to his traditional methods of harvesting honey from shared community forests near his village two hours outside Chiang Mai.

In his regular posts, filmed by his wife, Pran Tee searches through forests for hives, climbs tall trees effortlessly without ropes and smokes out the bees, wearing just a jumper, jeans and a woolly hat for protection.

Videos of his foraging technique – in which he carves foot-long chunks of mouthwatering honeycomb from bee hives – have gone viral, some racking up millions of plays.

In one October 26 video that has garnered 950,000 plays on Facebook, Pran Tee lies on a thin branch as he expertly carves honeycomb into a plastic bag. His latest post on Monday showing him smoking a bee hive has been played nearly 100,000 times so far.

Pran Tee says he first picked up the skill as a 10-year-old from his father, who took him along on honey-collecting missions. He has given up a job as a labourer to pursue his passion and spend more time at home with his wife and their six-year-old child.