Beekeeping with Indigenous People in the Amazon

This year, one of our main goals has been to expand the reach of our stingless beekeeping project in Maijuna lands and we have been hard at work making this happen. When we started this project over 2 years ago, we wanted to be very deliberate and thoughtful about how, when, and where to grow. Many well-intentioned sustainable development projects fail around the world because they try to grow too big, too fast. Taking these lessons to heart, we only wanted to expand our project once we had strong proof of concept and buy-in from the Maijuna. Seeing both things on-the-ground made us confident that we were more than ready to expand into two more Maijuna communities.

Before expanding into these two communities, we engaged in thoughtful discussion and planning with community elders and leaders to make sure that they were fully onboard with the project and knew what to expect. Since developing common goals and expectations, our team has held several community-level workshops in both communities focused on teaching proper husbandry and management techniques as well as the biology and ecology of stingless bees. We have also been engaged in family-level work, which has consisted of working closely with interested beekeepers and their families to help them setup and maintain their hives. There is still much work to be done and many more community-level workshops and family-level sessions to conduct but we are incredibly excited by our progress to date. In these two communities, over 70 individuals from ages 7 to 78 have been actively engaged in the project and these budding beekeepers are now tending over 24 hives. Before starting work in these communities, no one was tending stingless bees and there were no hives in the communities. We truly think the sky’s the limit based on this strong start!

We are incredibly excited about how this year has unfolded and we know that the Maijuna are too. Seeing the interest, passion, and dedication of the new Maijuna beekeepers has not only been fun to see but it has also been inspiring and energizing. Please help us achieve the Maijuna’s vision for a more sustainable future by continuing to support our stingless beekeeping project. As we move into the holiday season, we can think of nothing better or more meaningful than to sponsor a hive of native stingless bees ($50) or a week-long beekeeping workshop ($1,000) in the name of a loved one. Any level of support helps and we cannot thank you enough for your continued support!