In the Oxapampa–Asháninka–Yánesha Biosphere Reserve (BIOAY), the conservation of native stingless bees is creating new opportunities for local communities.
This process is part of Women for Bees, a global initiative led by UNESCO and Guerlain that promotes women’s empowerment by combining capacity-building, biodiversity conservation, and the creation of economic opportunities. In this context, Indigenous and rural women from Pasco (Peru) have strengthened their knowledge of sustainable meliponiculture and are now transforming this learning into concrete actions that promote pollinator conservation, local leadership, and the development of community-based initiatives.
One example of this process is the members of the BIONATIVAS Cooperative, who have taken an active role in knowledge transfer by leading a meliponiculture workshop for new members. This initiative reflects how the learning promoted through Women for Bees is being replicated by the participants themselves, contributing to the scalability and long-term sustainability of the project.
Building Capacities that Create Opportunities
In the BIOAY, members of the BIONATIVAS Cooperative have been strengthening their capacities in sustainable meliponiculture, generating new opportunities for learning, leadership, and community engagement.
Since mid-2025, cooperative members have participated in Farmer Field Schools (FFSs) promoted through the Women for Bees project, where they have strengthened practical knowledge on the management of native stingless bees, colony monitoring, and pollinator conservation. This training process has also contributed to strengthening collective action and the cooperative’s internal organization.
The FFSs are part of a UNESCO-led strategy that seeks not only to transfer technical knowledge but also to promote women’s leadership and create sustainable opportunities linked to biodiversity conservation and meliponiculture across the BIOAY territories.
In this context, and within the framework of the recently approved provincial ordinance establishing Pollinating Insects Week in Oxapampa, BIONATIVAS members decided to actively participate in the first official celebration by proposing and organizing their own introductory meliponiculture training workshop.
This first workshop was designed and implemented by the cooperative itself as a training initiative aimed at its members and open to the general public. Through this activity, participants assumed the role of facilitators, sharing the knowledge acquired through the FFSs and strengthening their position as active promoters of meliponiculture in the territory.
In addition to replicating what they had learned, this experience enabled them to generate income through a paid training service, thereby contributing to the strengthening of their technical, organizational, and economic capacities.
The experience of BIONATIVAS demonstrates how capacity-building can translate into local leadership, ownership of territorial policies, and the creation of concrete opportunities linked to pollinator conservation in Villa Rica.
READ MORE: https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/learning-action-initiatives-advancing-conservation-native-bees-bioay?hub=701
