An in-person meliponiculture workshop held in the Alto Solimões region, in southwestern Amazonas, brought participants together for five intensive days in the municipality of Santo Antônio do Içá. The gathering was marked by exchanges of knowledge, hands-on learning, and a collective commitment to the sustainable management of stingless bees.

Author: Ana Carolina Cavalcanti

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Bees, Forest, and Local Knowledge

The Alto Solimões Meliponiculture Workshop took place from July 7 to 11, 2025, in Santo Antônio do Içá, bringing together around 30 participants from diverse backgrounds and life paths: Indigenous people from the Kokama, Ticuna, and Omágua-Kambeba peoples, as well as riverine communities, caboclos, quilombolas, and family farmers. People whose daily lives are deeply connected to the forest, rivers, and natural cycles.

The workshop was the result of a collective process and partnerships that had already been taking shape in the territory. Leading the initiative were local leaders Rômulo de Souza Elias, Orlando de Jesus, and Antônio Pedro, members of our Network and the Pollinators Program. Joining forces were meliponiculturist and facilitator William Bercê, Projeto Olho D’Água, the Municipality of Santo Antônio do Içá, and, of course, Meli.

For Rômulo, the workshop also represents a continuation of a journey that began a year earlier. As a fellow of the first edition of the Pollinators Program, it was there that he first engaged in meliponiculture training and met William.

Orlando, in turn, is one of the most experienced native bee keepers in the region, with more than sixty hives and a trajectory marked by sharing knowledge with others in the community.

For him, the workshop played a fundamental role in expanding collective awareness:

“The workshop was very important because many relatives did not know the fundamental role native bees play in nature, which is pollination.”

– Orlando de Jesus

In Alto Solimões, speaking about stingless bees means speaking about forest, regeneration, and territory. The workshop started precisely from this understanding: recognizing what already exists and strengthening what can continue to grow.

Despite the challenges of accessing the region, the dedication of local leaders and the growing interest from communities made it clear that the event needed to happen there, in person. The goal was not only to transmit knowledge, but to strengthen local practices and expand support networks already present in the territory.

Activities combined theory and practice across different spaces: classrooms, meliponaries, forest areas, and participants’ own workplaces. Key learnings included:

Construction of hives, nests, and honey supers; production of traps with natural attractants to capture colonies; division and multiplication of colonies using modules and brood discs; prevention and control of pests such as ants and phorid flies; honey harvesting and management; and preparation of propolis extract.

The course also opened space for discussions on meliponiculture regulations and honey commercialization, providing important information for those interested in turning the activity into a source of income. By the end of the workshop, interest was so strong that a WhatsApp group was created, which remains active as a space for exchange, technical support, and continued learning.

Impact

The relevance of the workshop went beyond the training days. The Rede Amazônica team followed the activities, interviewed participants, and documented daily life during the workshop, resulting in a report, watch it here.

More than technical skills, the workshop strengthened a collective understanding of the role of bees in the territory. Antônio, one of the participants, summarizes this feeling when speaking about the importance of sharing what he learned:

“My pleasure is helping other people. Wherever I go and see a bee colony, I tell the person to place it in a proper hive. It brings well-being.”

– Antônio Pedro

Chief Joana, a Kokama leader from the Raízes da Ayahuasca village, shares how the workshop sparked a new perspective on the practice:

“Before, we didn’t pay much attention to the bees. Now we understand that they are in the same struggle as we are, protecting the forest.”

– Chief Joana

This perception is combined with the understanding that meliponiculture goes beyond honey production. As highlighted by Rômulo Elias:

“Everyone who was involved, directly or indirectly, realized that raising bees helps with regeneration and pollination of our forests here in the territory, while also building a sustainable economy.”

– Rômulo Elias

Today, the effects of the workshop can already be seen both in the urban area of Santo Antônio do Içá and in Indigenous rural communities such as Vila Betânia. The practice is spreading across the territory, connecting forest, work, and future.

The workshop officially concluded with the delivery of certificates and a moment of celebration organized by the community. But in the territory, learning continues to live on: in conversations, exchanges, meliponaries, and in the ideas now circulating among the community.

The strength of the workshop lay in the encounter itself, in the leadership of local actors, in the willingness to learn collectively, and in the shared understanding that caring for stingless bees is also caring for the forest, health, and the relationships that sustain life in Alto Solimões.

For facilitator William Bercê, the impact of the workshop goes far beyond the days of training. He summarizes the experience as something that has been set in motion and now follows its own path:

“I will always remember this workshop with great affection, with the certainty of the strength of the seed that was planted and the impact generated by all the practical experiences for the participants.”

– William Bercê

Just like pollination, through which bees carry life from one place to another, the workshop left behind seeds of care, autonomy, and regeneration that continue to germinate in Alto Solimões.

You can read the full technical report here.