Bee Mapping
Large-scale distribution mapping across the Peruvian Amazon: species richness, nesting trees, and habitat range observed at community Stingless bee sanctuaries.
Active program · Loreto + Ashaninka territories
Safeguarding Amazonian stingless bees.
Six interlocking projects across Peru's Amazon basin — species mapping, biocultural medicine, female-led beekeeping, policy, pollination, and bee health. Co-led with Kukama-Kukamiria and Ashaninka communities.
The oldest bee on the planet
Native bees as indicator species.
Stingless bees are the oldest bees on the planet and the most important pollinators of the Amazon rainforest. They have been kept by Indigenous communities for centuries — woven into food, medicine, ceremony, and forest stewardship.
Pesticides, deforestation, and emerging parasites are accelerating their decline at a rate the policy frameworks have not caught up with. National legislation still favours imported European honeybees over the more than 175 native stingless bee species recorded in Peru.
ARI works alongside Kukama-Kukamiria and Ashaninka beekeepers to close that gap — through field science, biochemistry, female-led capacity programs, and Indigenous-led conservation across the Peruvian Amazon and the broader bee corridor that reaches Bolivia, Colombia, and Brazil.
Their survival is crucial for regenerating the Amazon and preserving the associated Indigenous culture.
Ongoing projects
Six interlocking workstreams.
Each project funds a different layer of the program — from large-scale species mapping to municipal policy and parasite research. They run in parallel, but feed one shared dataset.
Biocultural Medicine
Biochemical analysis of stingless bee honey integrated with Indigenous knowledge of medicinal use. Peru’s first chemical analysis identifying biologically active compounds.
Las Meliponicultoras
Indigenous-led bee sanctuaries and capacity-building for women, youth, and community leaders. Author of the first multilingual stingless beekeeping manual.
Policy
Legal and policy advocacy translating field science into recognised rights for native bees and the communities that steward them.
Pollination
Pollination services in coffee systems — quantifying the contribution of native pollinators to crop productivity and food security.
Bee Health
Investigating parasites and emerging threats; modelling the impact of climate change and habitat fragmentation on colony survival.
Outcomes
What the program has delivered.
Verified results from the last twelve months of field science, biochemistry, and policy advocacy.
- 2026 Pan-Amazon stingless bee corridor idea discussed across Peru, Bolivia, Colombia and Brazil.
- 2025 Law 32235 enacted — stingless bees recognised as native Peruvian species.
- 2025 First municipal legal recognition of insect rights in Satipo and Nauta.
- 2024 First chemical analysis of stingless bee honey completed.
- 2024 Launched Las Meliponicultoras — the first training program for female-led beekeeping.
- — Inclusion in Peru’s National Biodiversity Strategy to 2030.
United Nations · COP16
A flagship species for the Amazon.
A three-minute film, produced with Peru's Ministry of Environment, summarises the case for safeguarding stingless bees as a flagship species of the Amazon basin — and the science and Indigenous knowledge backing it.
- Institute of Investigation of the Peruvian Amazon (IIAP)
- Earth Law Center
- Ashaninka and Kukama-Kukamiria Indigenous groups
Policy brief
Evidence for lawmakers.
A policy brief for the protection of stingless bees in the Peruvian Amazon — presented to the United Nations and forthcoming in an indexed journal. It compiles ARI field data, biochemistry results, and Indigenous testimony into a single legislative case.
Presented at the UN · publication forthcoming · supported by Peru’s Ministry of Environment.
Stingless beekeeping is not a new technique. It is an old knowledge that we now also speak in Spanish, in English, and in scientific reports.
— Betty Torres · Presidenta de la Asociacion de meliponicultores region Loreto · Kukama-Kukamiria
In the press
Reported around the world.
Selected coverage of the program across the last two years.
- The Guardian · 2025
Stingless bees from the Amazon granted legal rights in world first.
Read the article - CNN · 2025
Video news on stingless bees and the Peruvian Amazon.
Read the article - The New York Times · Cover · 2024
The cover story on stingless bees and the Peruvian Amazon.
Read the article - National Geographic Magazine · 2023
Stingless bees produce a medicinal honey known locally as the 'miracle liquid'.
Read the article
Take action
Three ways to support the program.
Each option opens its own donation page with tiers, currency choice, and a preview of what donors receive after payment.
Adopt a Native Hive
Native hives sit in living trees. Three Amazonian species — Scaptotrigona, Ronsapilla, and Devil’s Beard — keep the forest pollinated and the host community thriving. Pick the species whose story moves you.
Adopt a Rational Hive
Rational hives are managed wooden boxes that let beekeepers harvest honey sustainably. Three species — Ronsapilla, Angelita, and Illota — live alongside the forest as part of community Stingless bee sanctuaries. Adopting one keeps a box alive and funds the meliponicultora who tends it.
Stingless Beekeeping Manual
The 2025 Meliponiculture Technical Manual — scientific knowledge and ancestral wisdom for the protection of stingless bees and Amazonian ecosystems. Available in Spanish, English, Ashaninka and Kukama. Buy a copy to read it in full and to fund the next print run for Indigenous communities.