Name of Product: Melipona honey
Scientific Name: Tetragonisca angustula
Product Type: Sweets
MP Region: South America
Country of origin: Bolivia (Plurinational State of)
Name of the Mountain Area: Parque Nacional Serranía del Iñao
Altitude Range: Class 4: elevation 1 500-2 500 m and slope ≥ 2
Narrative label: Read the Mountain Product & Producer Story This Melipona honey is an indigenous product carefully harvested by 158 women in Bolivia’s Serranía del Iñao National Park between 1 100 and 3 300 meters. Stingless bee honey is rather fluid with a delicate flavor of light sweetness and a touch of acidity. It gets its dark amber color from the great variety of native flowers found in the forest. Due to its unique gentle sweet and sour flavor, the market demand for this honey has recently increased. This enables families to persist with traditional beekeeping and protects the local forest. Its richness in vitamins, minerals and anti-bacterial and cicatrizing properties make it an essential medicine for the Guaraní people in Bolivia since ancient times.

Tradition
Indigenous people used to keep native stingless bees in meliponiculture – named after the tribe’s name Meliponini throughout Latin America. Nowadays, Melipona honey has become a rare good. Deforestation and the introduction of the more productive European honey bee has repressed the distribution of the 350 known stingless bee species. Perfectly adapted to the local environment, these stingless bees are crucial pollinators. The displacement of these them would lead to a distinct loss of biodiversity in the Bolivian forests.

Territory
In Bolivia’s Serranía del Iñao National Park which lies at the foot of the Eastern Cordillera between 1 100 and 3 300 meters, the Guaraní people raise Tetragonisca angustula, a type of stingless bees species. Locals give it various names like abeja señorita, burro or negro. In ancient times, the hives were obtained from empty pumpkins, while today they are made of wood and positioned under producers’ roofs. Melipona bees feed on native plants whose flowers, rich in alkaloids and flavonoids give the honey its highly medicinal properties.

Producers
158 women producers organized in 4 beekeepers cooperatives carry out honey production with their families. Harvesting is done manually done using syringes.
Producer: 158 women organized in 6 honey bee associations Monteagudo and Villa Vaca Guzman
Contact person: Fundación Pasos, Antonio Aramayo: [email protected]
Labelled since: 20.09.2018
Label latest verification: 20.09.2018
Website: http://pasosbolivia.org/
Type of producer: Women association
Smallholder: yes
Size of company: > 50 people
Distribution channel: Local market
At risk of disappearing: Yes, deforestation and the introduction of the more productive European honey bee has repressed the distribution of the 350 known stingless bee species.
Traditional product/production: Yes, indigenous people used to keep native stingless bees in meliponiculture – named after the tribe’s name Meliponini throughout Latin America.
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