I’ve spent the past days in Peru’s Loreto region with BioAmaz and BeeQueenCoin, learning how remote Indigenous families and stingless bees (Meliponini) sustain one another in an ecosystem threatened by illegal logging, gold mining, oil and gas extraction, mercury pollution, wildlife trafficking, land-tenure conflicts and labour exploitation.
Teaching communities to keep Meliponini hives in a sustainable way is a much-needed initiative — one that strengthens livelihoods and biodiversity at the same time.
Stingless bees have been part of Amazonian medicine for centuries. Their honey is unlike any other: naturally acidic (pH ~3), rich in antimicrobial and antioxidant compounds, and produced in tiny quantities — often only a few hundred millilitres per hive each year. Their propolis and wax have strong antifungal, antiviral and wound-healing properties, making them essential in traditional remedies for eye infections, throat inflammation and women’s health.
For generations, people harvested honey from wild nests, a practice that often destroyed the colonies. Today, simple wooden meliponarios allow families to keep the bees without harming them, collecting small but precious harvests of honey, pollen, wax and propolis that are sold as food, medicine and cosmetic ingredients. 🐝🌺🍯
At the centre of this story is BioAmaz, an Iquitos-based co-operative that trains rainforest families, buys their harvest at several times the local price, and reinvests much of the revenue to involve new communities. The result: stable income, restored forest patches and traceable, high-quality hive products in a world flooded with adulterated honey.
There is so much to learn from these tiny creatures, and so much potential in this initiative!
Thank you, Adriano
@mezabraga for the opportunity to witness it up close. 🙏🏻
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