Bees against rainforest destruction
For some years now, we have been working in beekeeping "Meliponicultura", which is the production of honey originating from melipona, Brazil’s native bees.
This activity is different from classical apiculture which uses « Apis » bees imported from Europe and Africa.
These native melipona bees have no stings, so people can set up hives around their homes and collect the honey without using special equipment. The hives, small and light, can be handled easily by any member of the family. Finally, the equipment is cheaper and demands less transportation.
Contrary to "Apis”, these small native bees can pollinate all flowers, even the tiniest ones. Thus, these insects play a crucial role in the pollinating of the flora.
Though we are developing melipona cultivation, we have not abandoned classical apiculture and we continue to monitor the “apicultural” hives we have set up in different sites over the past few years.
Today, beekeeping is becoming an important sustainable activity. Bees are essential to life, for they pollinate forests and crops, providing people with food and maintaining biodiversity.
In its continuous search to find ways of exploiting nature’s renewable resources, Nordesta has created the beekeeping program in harmony with both in the sustainable development program recommended by the Agenda 21, as well as the « No Hunger » project launched by Brazil’s authorities in 2003, protecting the environment and helping populations to fight poverty.