Slow Food Contributes to the Protection of Chuquisaca Stingless Bees by promoting a Presidium in Bolivia

The Stingless Bees Presidium is crucial to preserving Indigenous habitats’ biodiversity and cultural heritage

The Chuquisaca Stingless Bees Presidium supports the protection and enhancement of species such as Señorita (Trigona), Negro and Burro (Scaptotrigona), Tancarillo (Melipona) and Boca de Sapo (Nanotrigona), bred in the department of Chuquisaca, Bolivia. The honey produced, derived from a wide variety of local honey plants, is the result of traditional practices carried out mainly by Guaranì women.

Native bees and their habitat are at risk because of deforestation, wildfires, and the expansion of intensive agriculture, which destroy the trees where they nest and reduce the availability of honeybee flora. Supporting these bees means contributing to environmental conservation and the resilience of local communities in the face of climate change while enhancing a high-quality product that is an expression of local traditions and biodiversity.

Honey from native stingless bees of the Chaco Chuquisaqueño is an ancestral legacy that has been passed down from generation to generation by the region’s meliponiculturists, starting with the Guaraní women. This honey, produced in smaller quantities compared to common bees, has outstanding medicinal properties, such as antibiotic and healing properties, used by communities to treat eye diseases. Popular beliefs, handed down for centuries, consider this honey essential for fertility, while they are also used to alleviate cataracts and other conditions.

For generations, women who anciently lived in those territories have combined ancestral knowledge and modern techniques for the care of native stingless bees. In addition to honey production, meliponiculturists engage in the processing and transformation of bee-related products, such as creams, chapstick, shampoos, pastilles, and syrups, and actively participate in local and national fairs for direct sales. The role of women is crucial not only for bee care but also for environmental conservation. Supporting these women means valuing their role as pillars of local communities and protagonists in the defense of Guarani biodiversity and cultural traditions.

The Chuquisaca small stingless bees are the custodians of biodiversity in one of the richest and most diverse areas of Bolivia, located in the heart of the Serranía del Iñao National Park and Integrated Management Natural Area. In this territory, where three distinct ecosystems – Gran Chaco, Bosque Tucumano-Boliviano and Chaco Serrano – meet, bees contribute to the ecological balance that is essential for the health of the land.

The Chuquisaca Stingless Bees Presidium coordinator Edith Martinez Guerra says: “For me, opening this Presidium would mean many important things. First, it would be a way to give value to honeys and other native bee products, not only as food but also as a key tool to conserve biodiversity at an international level. In addition, it would be an effort to rescue something that is disappearing: ancestral practices and knowledge that, for lack of valuation and transmission, are at risk of being lost. It is also an opportunity to revalue our food traditions, those that are healthy and sustainable, but are sometimes forgotten due to lack of information and knowledge.”

The women involved in the project are part of the Slow Food Community “Mujeres promotoras al cuidado de las abejas nativas del Chaco Chuquisaqueño,” and are also part of an association called AMMECH – Asociación de Mujeres Meliponicultoras Ecológicas del Chaco Chuquisaqueño.

Thanks to the work of the the AMMECH Association, and with the support of the SANAPI project, honey from native bees of the Chaco Chuquisaqueño has been recognized as a Slow Food Presidium. This recognition highlights not only the gastronomic value of honey, but also its cultural, environmental and economic importance for the families that produce it.

For more information:

Presidium coordinator:
Edith Martinez Guerra
+591 73447843
[email protected]

Slow Food International Press Office

Paola Nano – [email protected] (+39) 329 8321285

Alessia Pautasso – [email protected] (+39) 342 8641029