In Peru: a mission to save the stingless bee

As a child, Heriberto Vela, a native of Loreto, Peru, watched his father pull nests of wild stingless bees from trees in the Amazon rainforest. Together the two then extracted honey from the nests to help cure colds and other ailments.

Stingless bees are native to the Amazon, unlike the more familiar but invasive honey bees from Africa and Europe that spread through the Americas. Perhaps the most obvious difference is that stingless bees do not sting. Their honey, which is fluid enough to be drunk as a liquid and is said to have a citrusy aftertaste, is used as a natural medicine by many native Peruvians.

Mr. Vela's father did not know how to save the bees: they would fly away or even die. “We took out the nests and left them on the ground in the forest,” Mr Vela said. “Those bees were lost.”

Today, Mr. Vela more advanced. His family keeps 76 nests of stingless bees in square wooden boxes on sticks throughout his home. Each artificial nest has several drawers, but Mr. Vela harvests only honey from one drawer, which he calls the mielera or honeypot, leaving the rest for the bees. “They need it to live,” he explained. “If I take it away from them, they can run.”

The Amazon is home to hundreds of species of stingless bees, but as deforestation turns the tropical landscape into farms and ranches, these and other native pollinators are in danger of disappearing. Pesticides, climate change and competition with the honey bee, which is better adapted to agricultural areas than the stingless bee, are adding to the tension.

Mr. Vela's family is among the few who keep stingless bees and live off the income they provide. César Delgado, entomologist at the Peruvian Amazon Research Institute that mr. Vela has helped refine his practice as he looks to broaden his appeal. “Beekeeping is a very good way for the forest and communities to adapt to climate change,” he said.

Building an economy around stingless bees, which pollinate much of the Amazon's native flora, is a creative way to combat deforestation, says Rosa Vásquez Espinoza, a chemical biologist and founder of Amazon Research International. But for this effort to work, Dr. Vásquez Espinoza, the knowledge and way of life of the indigenous peoples who call the rainforest their home should be integrated. It must be “a process that is self-sustaining and aligned with the culture of the communities,” she said.