Amazonian biodiversity: lessons learned from native bees

In Mazagão, Amapá, the search for biodiversity gains small allies: the stingless bees native to the Amazon. And alongside them, a new generation of young people from the Carvão Agro-extractive Family School (EFAC) is learning, in practice, how to conserve Amazonian biodiversity, generate income, and transform their own future. This is how the "Bees are Life in the Forest" project, from the Nossa Amazônia Association, was born.

"When you talk to the community, people know that something is happening, but they can't correlate it with climate change. They report that the cassava is rotting, that the açaí is drying out on the trees, that they are harvesting fewer Brazil nuts. Our work is this: to bring information and empower people," says Joaquim Belo, coordinator of ANAMA.

Basic education students and their families are rediscovering the importance of native bees. Through the project, they learn how to implement management systems for native stingless bees for honey production and the rational use of environmental services integrated into the cultivation of açaí.

“O modo de vida das pessoas que sustentam a floresta, e o banquete, o sustento da comunidade vem dessa biodiversidade. Nosso trabalho é fortalecer isso, é fortalecer a relação das pessoas com a natureza, é construir um currículo comunitário que comunique com esses jovens nesse novo momento que vivemos”, afirma Joaquim.

With cross-cutting and multidisciplinary methodologies, the project builds knowledge, promotes the implementation of rational beehives in meliponary systems and shelters for bees as pollinators of forests and key crops that impact the livelihoods of families in the region.