Women for bees

Initially launched in partnership with UNESCO, the Women for Bees programme began in southern France before expanding to biosphere reserves in Cambodia, and then Rwanda, where 33 women beekeepers were trained in 2024. In total, nearly 200 women have been trained, and more than 3,500 hives have been installed.

Alongside its partnership with UNESCO, Guerlain is also developing a series of Women for Bees initiatives with leading local NGOs, in particular:

• Guerlain x Conapi in Bologna, Italy
• Guerlain x El Rincón de la Abeja in Barcelona, Spain
• Guerlain x Umeda Mitsubachi NPO and Ginza Mitsubachi NPO in Japan

Three years since launching the pioneering “Women for Bees” programme, UNESCO and Guerlain, have ambitiously expanded their apicultural entrepreneurship programme to the Gishwati-Mukura Landscape Biosphere Reserve in Rwanda —the programme’s first endeavor on the African continent— with a new cohort of beekeeping trainees.

The training serves as a path toward their financial autonomy and emancipation, while fostering camaraderie, bringing the women together in collaborative work and a supportive exchange of ideas.