Interview by AMBRE PLUTA / Photography by Claire Oh
I knew that the Beekeeping Society existed and that LSE had beehives somewhere on campus, but it felt more like a myth. When I ran into Salsabel Abuazza, the President of the Beekeeping Society at the Welcome Fair in September, it was the first time I had ever actually seen proof of their existence. I couldn’t wait to interview Salsabel, to learn everything about it and LSE’s bees.
Salsabel first got into bees through her sister. “She was telling me all about the bees and what they do. And then I got interested.” Salsabel started researching online and got really fascinated. There were also a few beehives in her town that she went to see. But it was only after coming to LSE that she had her first chance to actually get involved in beekeeping.
LSE started beekeeping in 2010 as a sustainability initiative. Salsabel noted that “The reaction at first was: wow, you’re crazy! How are you bringing bees onto campus? But eventually it kind of became a trend. So, there’s quite a few beehives now dotted around London. LSE was the trendsetter, I would say.”
Yet the Beekeeping Society has been an empty shell for the last two years, only getting revived this year by Salsabel. “For the past two years, nothing. I really, really wanted to get involved. And I just thought to myself, why not me? Why not just restart the society? So here we are.” Although the society was dormant it still had members, and Salsabel was voted in.
There are five beehives on the roof of Connaught House at LSE. It is a truly beautiful sight – a patch of green on a random roof in central London with bees buzzing around.
The Beekeeping Society is one of LSESU’s fifteen Sustainable Societies; it currently has just over 50 members. Salsabel and her committee members have a few core objectives. The first is to reinvigorate the society and get as many people involved in beekeeping as possible. “We also kind of saw that a lot of people were interested, but they’re quite scared of going up to the bees. So, we want to break down that barrier, make it a bit more inclusive, and then show how the bees play a role in our everyday lives.” They aim to teach members about beekeeping, not just in terms of the hive, but also about how bees work together in different groups, and how they all play different roles to help their queen.
The society harvests honey from the LSE beehives, which they sell to students and staff. The proceeds from the sales go towards maintaining the beekeeping equipment and towards society events such as artisan honey tasting, candle wax making, or gardening in the space around the beehives. Salsabel added that they are thinking of organising a competition asking students to design the label to make the honey jars extra special and unique.
Beekeeping members also usually help clean the hives. However, during winter the hives are left alone to preserve them from the cold. Salsabel hopes to foster a community of like-minded people and give them the chance to partake in a hobby that they otherwise would not have had the opportunity to do. The society plans to run a number of sustainability talks and charity events, raising money for bee conservation, while also bringing in experts who can talk about the role that bees play in the ecosystem.
Salsabel detailed the level of detail and care that goes into looking after bees. First, the process involves checking the temperature, ensuring that the bees are not too cold during winter. They also clean the bottom of the beehives as “the bees actually clean the hive themselves and then drop [any dirt] at the bottom. So, all we need to do is just take out the tray and empty it. To be fair, I think most people taking care of the bees will tell you this: the bees take care of themselves.” But the most important part is looking out for parasites or any invading insects. That is the job of the professional beekeeper, Barnaby Shaw, that LSE hires. “He’s absolutely great and takes care of the beehives year round.” Dan Reeves, who is part of the sustainability team, also assists in looking after the bees.
Last year, Salsabel was the SU’s Environment and Ethics (E&E) Officer. She noted that although it was a really interesting role, it wasn’t what she was expecting. Salsabel wanted to make tangible change at LSE and build on the previous E&E officer’s work. She explained that the previous officer had done an amazing job. “For example, she worked towards divestment.” It became very clear throughout the interview that divestment [from fossil fuels] was a cause very close to Salsabel’s heart. Salsabel’s manifesto for the E&E office position mainly focused on working towards divesting from the “damaging holdings that LSE has taken on, thus removing investments from holdings that are carbon intensive.”
Yet, Salsabel wasn’t given the necessary tools to work towards that goal. Even though the previous E&E officer had been on the investment subcommittee, Salsabel was not allowed to be. “When I transitioned into the role, they sneakily removed my role from the investment subcommittee. I didn’t even know until the day of the meeting. I was going to join and then they told me they had removed my role from it.”
Salsabel tried to get her role reinstated, as she really wanted to make a change and believed being on the subcommittee was essential in doing that. She explained that she was stonewalled. Salsabel received a hard ‘no’ and was not allowed back on the subcommittee. “The thing that I based my manifesto on, I was basically told I couldn’t do much about it, because I wasn’t allowed to have any information from there. So that kind of hampered my work in the Environment and Ethics role.”
Although she isn’t the E&E Officer this year, Salsabel has not abandoned her work towards divestment and continues to work with the student-led Divestment Alliance at LSE. She has also had different opportunities, such as being in the Grantham Institute meetings. The Grantham Institute is an organisation between LSE and Imperial College London that researches climate change and environment policy.
Salsabel stressed the importance of intersectionality in the sustainability movement. “It is necessary to make this movement for everyone. Climate change and race discussion are very much intertwined. We can’t win in one place without winning in the other. And I think if one fails, the other one is going to fail as well.”
As we reached the end of our conversation, I asked Salsabel where her dedication for the environment and nature came from. She believes it first started from reading about climate change online. That led her to create the concept of eco-ambassadors in her school with a few friends. Then, in college, she was part of her local Extinction Rebellion group. These developments cumulatively impassioned Salsabel to further delve into issues surrounding sustainability.
She believes that her Muslim faith is where her dedication to the environment truly originated. “I feel like I have that kind of duty, to be good to the environment, and to speak up for when injustice is done to it.” She noted that taking care of the environment is a central part of her practising her faith, and that it inspires her to continue this work, even when she faces hurdles.
