Problem Statement

There are more than 20,000 species of bees in the world. However, we have only added actions to protect one, the Apis Mellifera or honey bee. In Mexico, we have 46 species of native stingless bees and in Morelos alone we have 10 of these 46. Bees provide a very important service that ensures our food security and promotes diversity in ecosystems. Observing that many people are unaware of the existence of these bees and that unsustainable traditional meliponiculture practices are putting their survival at risk, we have proposed implementing concrete solutions.

Proposed Solution

Our strategy is based on three fundamental pillars: education, training, and awareness.

Activities

Through workshops and presentations at social markets, schools, and public learning spaces, we seek to raise awareness and educate the community about the importance of native bees in our ecosystems and food security. Additionally, we want to promote the diversity of native flora by creating pollinator gardens, encouraging the observation and care of various pollinator species.

We are currently establishing a native stingless bee sanctuary in Ahuatepec, which will also serve as an educational space for guided tours and informative talks.

Long-Term Goals

In the long term, we will provide training to promote meliponiculture, which is the management of native bees, so that it becomes a strong economic activity in the State, focusing mainly on women.

These practices are not new, in fact, they have an ancestral Mayan history and work has been going on since then.

Available Metrics

The way we will measure the scope of the project is in the number of people who take the workshops, measure the age ranges, number of hives in the sanctuary, and number of people benefiting as an economic activity (long term).

Collaborators

Our main collaborator is the project called Maia Conservación, which seeks to join forces with Global Shapers to have a greater reach with workshops and awareness campaigns about these bee species.