An interconnected Indigenous-led conservation network across the Amazon — combining species mapping, pollinator conservation, rainforest regeneration, sustainable livelihoods, and policy advocacy across Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, and Ecuador.
Stingless bees are among the oldest bee lineages on Earth and some of the Amazon Rainforest's most important pollinators. Indigenous communities have stewarded them for centuries, weaving them into food systems, medicine, ceremony, and forest management practices.
Deforestation, pesticides, habitat degradation, climate change, and emerging parasites are accelerating their decline faster than conservation and policy systems can respond.
ARI works alongside Ashaninka, Kukama-Kukamiria, Shipibo, and other Indigenous communities to help close that gap through Indigenous-led research, modern science, female-led capacity-building programmes, sustainable livelihoods, and Rights of Nature advocacy. While rooted primarily in Peru, this work is now expanding through collaborations and biocultural conservation initiatives across the wider Amazon, including Bolivia, Colombia, and Ecuador.
Their survival is crucial for regenerating the Amazon and preserving the associated Indigenous culture.
Each project funds a different layer of the program — from large-scale species mapping to municipal policy and parasite research. They run in parallel, but feed one shared dataset.
Large-scale distribution mapping across the Peruvian Amazon and expanding pilot initiatives in Bolivia and Ecuador: documenting species richness, nesting trees, habitat range, and ecological threats at community stingless bee sanctuaries.
First chemical analysis of Peruvian stingless bee honey conducted alongside Dr. César Delgado. The work is now expanding to investigate bioactive molecules in honey and propolis, helping revalorise stingless bee products and better understand bee–plant relationships.
Indigenous-led bee sanctuaries and capacity-building programmes for women, youth, and community leaders. We authored the first multilingual stingless beekeeping manual developed alongside Indigenous communities in Peru.
Legal and policy advocacy translating field science into recognised protections for native bees, Indigenous stewardship, and Rights of Nature frameworks.
Pollination services research in coffee systems, quantifying the contribution of native pollinators to crop productivity and food security, with expanding work across other essential Amazonian crops and medicinal gardens.
Investigating parasites and emerging threats while modelling the impacts of climate change and habitat fragmentation on colony survival and long-term ecosystem resilience.
Verified results from our work in the field.
A three-minute film, produced with Peru's Ministry of Environment, summarises the case for safeguarding stingless bees as a flagship species of the Amazon basin — and the science and Indigenous knowledge backing it.
Published in 2025, this policy brief explores how science, Indigenous leadership, and legal innovation can strengthen protection for stingless bees and the ecosystems they sustain.
Presented at the United Nations COP16 with the Ministry of Environment in Peru.
Stingless beekeeping is not a new technique. It is an old knowledge that we now also speak in Spanish, in English, and in scientific reports.
— Stefanie Torres · President of Asociación de Meliponicultores de la Región Loreto
Selected coverage of the program around the world.
Honey-making stingless bees in the Peruvian Amazon become the first insects to gain legal rights.
Read the articleStingless bees from the Amazon granted legal rights in world first.
Read the articleVideo news on stingless bees and the Peruvian Amazon.
Read the articleStingless bees in the Amazon get legal rights — world's first for insects.
Read the articleThe cover story on stingless bees and the Peruvian Amazon.
Read the articleStingless bees produce a medicinal honey known locally as the 'miracle liquid'.
Read the articleEach option opens its own donation page with tiers, currency choice, and a preview of what donors receive after payment.
Native hives sit in living trees. Three Amazonian species — Scaptotrigona, Ronsapilla, and Devil’s Beard — keep the forest pollinated and the host community thriving. Pick the species whose story moves you.
Rational hives are managed wooden boxes that let beekeepers harvest honey sustainably. Three species — Ronsapilla, Angelita, and Illota — live alongside the forest as part of community Stingless bee sanctuaries. Adopting one keeps a box alive and funds the meliponicultora who tends it.
The 2025 Meliponiculture Technical Manual — scientific knowledge and ancestral wisdom for the protection of stingless bees and Amazonian ecosystems. Available in Spanish, English, Ashaninka and Kukama. Buy a copy to read it in full and to fund the next print run for Indigenous communities.
