Global meliponiculture: challenges and opportunities Marilda Cortopassi-Laurino, Vera Lucia Imperatriz-Fonseca, David Ward Roubik, Anne Dollin, Tim Heard, Ingrid Aguilar, Giorgio C. Venturieri, Connal Eardley, Paulo Nogueira-Neto To cite this version: Marilda Cortopassi-Laurino, Vera Lucia Imperatriz-Fonseca, David Ward Roubik, Anne Dollin, Tim Heard, et al.. Global meliponiculture: challenges and opportunities. Apidologie, Springer Verlag, 2006, 37 (2), pp.275-292. hal-00892208 HAL Id: hal-00892208 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00892208 Submitted on 1 Jan 2006 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Apidologie 37 (2006) 275–292 275 c INRA/DIB-AGIB/ EDP Sciences, 2006 DOI: 10.1051/apido:2006027 Review article Global meliponiculture: challenges and opportunities Marilda C-La,VeraLuciaI-Fb, DavidWardRc, Anne Dd,TimHe, Ingrid Af,GiorgioC. Vg, Connal Eh,PauloN-Na a Ecology Dept., Biosciences Institute, S. Paulo University, Brazil b Biology Dept., F.F.C.L. Ribeirão Preto, S. Paulo University, Av. Bandeirantes 3900, 14040-901 Ribeirão Preto, Brazil c Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Republic of Panama d Australian Native Bee Research Centre, PO Box 74, North Richmond New South Wales 2754, Australia e CSIRO Entomology, 120 Meiers Rd, Indooroopilly Queensland 4068, Australia f CINAT Centro de Investigaciones Apícolas Tropicales, Universidad Nacional, 475-3000 Heredia, Costa Rica g EMBRAPA Amazônia Oriental, PO Box 48, Belém-PA, CEP 66.017-970, Brazil h ARC Plant Protection Research Institute, Private BagX134, Queenswood, 0121, South Africa Received 19 January 2006 – Accepted 15 February 2006 Abstract – Stingless bees are social bees that live in tropical and subtropical areas of the world. All species produce honey, which has been appreciated by humans since ancient times. Here, the general panorama of meliponiculture is presented. Deforestation and poor management are the main problems faced by this incipient industry. For a profitable meliponiculture, much more biological information is needed, as well as field studies in natural conditions. In the near future, we suggest that the successful use of these pollinators will promote the development of new breeding techniques and commercialization possibilities, which must be designed to be sustainable. meliponiculture / stingless bees / breeding / honey / wax / pollinators / Apidae / Meliponini Africa, and a little beyond the tropic of Cancer 1. INTRODUCTION in the Northern hemisphere. Stingless bee beekeeping is known as Stingless bees together with honeybees are meliponiculture. This activity, generally un- eusocial insects. Stingless bees have been dertaken by traditional communities, has local known for their honey and pollen production, characteristics according to regional and tradi- but nowadays their role as the providers of tional knowledge. Honey and a waxy material ecosystem services is also recognized. Today, (the cerumen of stingless bee nests is not pure over 600 species in 56 named genera live in wax, but a wax/plant resin mixture) were the tropical and subtropical areas of the world; 400 traditional products. Resin is also occasion- known species exist in the Neotropical region, ally an important income source for the stin- and it is estimated that there are more than gless bee beekeeper, as well as the renting of 100 to be described (Camargo, pers. comm.). ◦ ◦ colonies for pollination service. The stingless bees reach 32 Sto38 S in South America and Australia, respectively, 28◦Sin In this paper, the regional status of melipon- iculture worldwide is considered. The use of Corresponding author: M. Cortopassi-Laurino, stingless bees as crop pollinators has opened a [email protected] new economic possibility for meliponiculture. Present address: Biological Science Centre, Santa Large-scale rearing of stingless bees is a cur- Catarina Federal University, 88040-900, Florinopo- rent challenge as it must be aligned with sus- lis SC, Brazil. tainable development. Article published by EDP Sciences and available at http://www.edpsciences.org/apido or http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/apido:2006027 276 M. Cortopassi-Laurino et al. 2. ORIGINS OF MELIPONICULTURE Kayapó universe was taken from social in- sects, including stingless bees, ants and wasps. Although diverse indigenous peoples lived In their religious ceremonies, meliponine wax in Mexico when the Spanish conquerors ar- or cerumen was used. Camargo and Posey rived in sixteenth century, the ancient Maya (1990) mention that some Kayapó individu- people held stingless bees in high regard and als knew many details of bee behavior, dis- considered them an integral part of social and tribution, nest types and their respective eco- religious life. At that time, stingless bees pro- logical zones. The bee specialists in Gorotire vided a vital small-scale economy, due to their were all shamans: they looked for bee nests honey (used as medicine, as sweetener and during the night (they were not afraid of spir- for mead), their waxes, and resins. The cul- its), and could find them by the noise from tural importance of a single central species, nest ventilation, which they recognized for called Xunan-Kab (Melipona beecheii), was each bee species (see also Kajobe and Roubik, recorded in documents written with ideograms 2006). They also could follow the odor that by the Maya, recorded in their codices. Only bees used to mark nesting sites. The person three of these codices have survived and one, that found the nest became its owner and the Tro Codex, contains most data on bees and could exploit it, using several techniques ac- their meaning to society. cording to the species. Indigenous people use The honey produced by Xunan-Kab was smoke for managing aggressive bees, such considered sacred by the Maya and was also as Oxytrigona, and also use a common toxic traded. Lopes de Gomara (1552) wrote that liana (Tanaecium nocturnum, Bignoniaceae) stingless bee honey occurred in different col- to manage the bees, which causes bees to sleep ors, flavors, and fluidity, and indicated that it after 1 or 2 minutes. All knowledge on bees was an important medicinal product. Honey was passed orally through generations. The wasalsousedtopaytaxestotheAztecs,and traditional way of finding nests by the noise Inca (Cobo, 1653; Roubik, 2000). In Mex- made by worker bees during nest ventilation ico, there was a god of honey, while honey is still a method used by many native people and cerumen of M. beecheii were used in from different communities in Eastern Ama- sacred ceremonies. Even today, in catholic zon. These collectors usually mark the trees churches in Puebla, Mexico, it is possible to with a nest inside during the night. Later, dur- see wax objects offered to God. Besides the ing the day, the nests are collected. modern cultural changes, the stingless bees, The Kayapó exploit stingless bee nests especially the Xunan-Kab, are among the few (Melipona seminigra pernigra, M. melanoven- native organisms that possess a widely ac- ter, M. rufiventris flavolineata, Scaptotrigona knowledged status as a cultural, ecological nigrohirta, S. polysticta, among others) dur- and economic icon (De Jong, 2001; Villanueva ing several consecutive years. When they open et al., 2005b). However, beekeeping with stin- natural nests to collect food, some brood, gless bees has sharply declined in the last half pollen and honey is left for the spirit “Bep- century. Villanueva et al. (2005a) made the kororoti” and this allows recovery of the first census of meliponiculture in Mayan com- colony. Some species like Tetragonisca an- munities in Yucatan, and verified that this ac- gustula, Trigona cilipes and T. dallatorre- tivity is almost extinct (90% of colonies have ana are brought into houses in baskets made been lost in the last 25 years). with banana leaves, and thus are under semi- In Brazil, stingless bees play an important domestication. The Kayapó seem to be aware role in the ethnobiology of the Kayapó (Posey of the role of stingless bees as crop pollinators and Camargo, 1985; Camargo and Posey, (Slaa et al., 2006); they tend to plant bee plants 1990). They named and classified 34 species near their crops to attract the bees. of stingless bees, of which 9 were consid- In Africa, Byarugaba (2004) discussed the ered managed or semi-domesticated. Resin Abayandas pygmy indigenous knowledge on and cerumen were used in their artifacts and stingless bees in the Bwindi forest reserve, as medicine. The natural world model of the Uganda. He explained that Bwindi is a forest Global meliponiculture: challenges and opportunities 277 Figure 1. Vertical hive with special ventilation system for stingless bees of tropical areas (from Giorgio C. Venturieri in www.cpatu.embrapa.br/meliponicultura.htm). island, where different types of forests merge, Stingless bees nest mainly in tree hollows. For and the diversity of species in many groups is such species, it is easier to move and maintain higher than in other parts, yet only six species a nest in artificial wooden hives. Subterranean of stingless bees are found there. Batwa pyg- nests, compared to aerial nests, are difficult to mies, Abayanda, Bakiga and Bafumbira peo- maintain in hives. Considering the variety of ple use the honey of Meliponula ferruginea bee species, a large array of boxes, differing in and other bees for medicine, e.g. to alleviate style and size, have been built and tested. In constipation. Brazil, horizontal hives are much more com- mon than vertical ones. Some beekeepers be- lieve that the vertical boxes supply the bees 3. FROM TREE HOLLOWS with the same conditions they have in the logs.