Pueblos Indígenas

The intrinsic connection between Indigenous Peoples and pollinators


25/08/2022 - 

Istanbul, Türkiye - The 47th Apimondia International Apicultural Congress took place from 24. - 28. August 2022,focusing on apitherapy, bee biology, beekeping economy, beekeeping for rural development, bee health, pollination and bee flora and beekeeping technology and quality.

"Beekeeping has low barriers. You don't have to own land, you don't have to have high start-up costs, and certainly, there is no gender barrier - anybody can keep bees" emphasized Dr Jeff Pettis, President of Apimondia.

FAO participated in several capacities in the Congress, notably by delivering an opening speech by Yon Fernandez de Larrinoa, Head of FAO's Indigenous Peoples Unit. "Bees Unite the world and Indigenous Peoples can teach us how to feed ourselves sustainably," he emphasized. "Indigenous Peoples Food systems are based in sophisticated territorial management practices that have evolved and adapted overtime thanks to the observation and understanding of ecosystems and natural cycles. They offer not only a holistic view to food, health, medicine and wellbeing, but they also imply a cosmogony and spirituality that is not anthropocentric but more biocentric. The rights of ecosystem existence and value on their own, are common in Indigenous cultures and we could learn from that," he added.

Fernandez-de-Larrinoa emphasized that Indigenous Peoples and pollinators are key for healthy ecosystems and biodiversity conservation, and face similar threats such as extractive industries, destruction of ecosystems, urbanization, reduction of biodiversity, toxics and pollutants, deforestation and the climate crisis.

Food production and food generation

"We need to explain more and better the difference between food generation and food production. Hunting, gathering, fishing, shifting cultivation are all food generation activities. Livestock rearing, acquaculture, agriculture are all food production activities. Beekeeping and honey harvesting are closer to food generation than to food production given that the essence of beekeeping depends still largely on ecosystems and biodiversity," he added.

 A new narrative and new Indicators

"Unless we come up with an attractive, and robust new narrative that integrates food systems, pollinators, biodiversity, bee keeping, indigenous peoples, it is unlikely that we will be able to make good proposals fast enough to catch up with the biodiversity loss we are witnessing. Unless this narrative is backed up by indicators that are simple and measurable, we will not be able to compensate the dominant paradigms influencing global food systems. We need more than ever that Bees Unite the World if we are to come up with sustainable food systems on time," Fernandez-de-Larrinoa concluded.

 

He also outlined several ideas of collaboration between FAO and Apimondia.