Creating income-generating opportunities from stingless beekeeping helps the Indigenous Maijuna people of the Peruvian Amazon preserve their way of life—without resorting to practices that might harm their natural environment.
By assisting indigenous and traditional communities in the creation of sustainable development projects, we help to generate income without jeopardizing their biological and cultural resources.
In the Peruvian Amazon, we have partnered with One Planet NGO to support the Maijuna community to raise stingless bees. Amazonian stingless bees produce a type of honey that is highly valued for both its unique taste and medicinal qualities. Regionally, stingless bee products garner a premium price and there is a robust market for their honey. One Planet is training communities to raise stingless bees as a sustainable source of income, providing alternatives from other more destructive economic activities. There are now over 50 stingless beehives in one Maijuna community with more on the way.
Stingless bees depend on the forest for survival, so it is in the best interest of communities that practice beekeeping to conserve the forest because it becomes a source of economic potential. This provides powerful alternatives to individuals, allowing them to earn money while conserving their forests as well as maintaining their traditional lifestyle and culture. In short, without viable sustainable income-generating activities such as stingless beekeeping, the allure of logging and overhunting may be too great for the Maijuna to ignore when faced with the need to provide for their families.
This community-based stingless beekeeping project empowers the Maijuna to earn sustainable income, which can then be used for school supplies, health care, and other basic yet critically important family expenses. This is real sustainable income, helping to improve the lives of real people.
During O.A.T.’s New! Peru’s Nazca Lines & Amazon Rain Forest adventure, travelers have the opportunity to meet the Maijuna people and witness the impact of this project. They also learn about the tribe’s camera trapping program.A series of cameras have been set up throughout the Maijuna-Kichwa Regional Conservation Area—a more than 1,500 square mile section of forest protected from logging, ranching, and other destructive activity—to monitor the welfare of the animal populations that have struggled to survive here in the industrial age.
Meet the Maijuna people and learn about the challenges they face in protecting their homeland—and way of life—during New! Peru’s Nazca Lines & Amazon Rain Forest. To learn more about the work of Grand Circle Foundation, or to donate to the project of your choice, visit www.grandcirclefoundation.org.
