Beekeeping with Indigenous People in the Amazon

Stingless bees create scent trails in the forest that lead their sisters to flowers so they can better gather nectar and feed the colony. So, too, are Maijuna stingless beekeeping educators – dubbed ‘promoters’ – showing new beekeepers the way to more hives and honey.

This May we launched promoter training with nine of our most accomplished beekeepers. During the last three months they have taken enormous strides as educators and are supporting family, neighbors, and entire communities to new levels of growth.

Within their own communities the Maijuna promoters are regularly working with beekeepers, making dozens of home visits to review progress, demonstrate new techniques, and encourage best practices that will boost this season’s sustainable honey harvest.

In Sucusari, Magnolia and Ilder hosted mini-workshops for neighbors teaching colony divisions and pest control, followed by family-level visits to support new beekeepers as they gain practice. Promoters Jermi and Duglas have been demonstrating techniques for reinforcing colonies to neighbors eager to learn from their experience. Saúl and Loida, the promoters in Nueva Vida, hosted a box-building workshop and constructed 18 new hives with locally-sourced materials. Together the couple has visited dozens of apiaries to support their community in mastering advanced husbandry techniques and boost future honey harvest. Tarkis has been making the beekeeping rounds in Puerto Huamán where she is accompanying her neighbors who are newly interested in the sustainable economic activity. Two promoters from Maijuna communities in the Napo River basin have traveled to the Putumayo to work with beekeepers in their first year of learning the trade.

The Maijuna beekeeping promoters are already sharing their knowledge beyond the reaches of their ancestral lands. A promoter has co-hosted multiday workshops with OnePlanet, the Chaikuni Institute, La Restinga, Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonía Peruana (IIAP), and Camino Verde in communities in the Pacaya Samiria National Reserve and to Urarina communities along the Rio Tigre.

Just like the bees they tend, the strength of our beekeepers lies in the collective. Empowering educators based in beekeeping communities is foundational for establishing an activity that can be sustainable through space and time. The promoters are enthusiastically embracing their role in supporting the people and bees they care about. The Maijuna beekeeping promoters are eager to advance their training and are preparing to spearhead this years’ upcoming honey harvest. Thank you for your support of this cohort of beekeeping educators through this exciting chapter of our work!