Meli Bees

Meli introduces meliponiculture (care of native bees) as a regenerative tool to protect the most endangered areas in the Amazon. Bees will support the primary forest and boost the food production of the regenerative agriculture developed in the previously devastated areas. This activities will be potentialized by a database and protected with the help of geotechnology. Meli was born where most destruction of the bioregion historically takes place and where 75% of the Amazonian deforestation still happens, playing a big role in the Carbon Emissions impacting the planet.

Rural and traditional communities hold the key for the Amazon protection, but they currently lack technical support to allow their regenerative practices to flourish. To solve that, Meli brings hands-on technical knowledge, working together with local universities and research institutes, for the practices to thrive and, in the same time, to make community science.

The world's largest tropical forest stores billions of tons of carbon crucial to global climate balance. However, circa 20% of the Amazon forest has already been lost. We, Meli members, have witnessed first-hand the drastic adverse changes to our childhood environment.

The deforestation endangers the bioregion and circa 130 bee species native to the region, the primary pollinators of the magnificent native trees.

The Amazon is home to more than twenty five million people, the first to suffer the impacts of deforestation. The local traditional communities lack support, are increasingly socially vulnerable and constantly suffer invasions to their land. Due to the decreased access to natural elements present in their culture, as the native bees, much traditional knowledge is being lost.

The traditional communities used to find beehives in the hollow trees and collect honey for food and medicine. However, the popular manner to harvest the honey often consists in felling the tree, killing both tree and beehive in the process. 

In this context, the traditional Amazonian communities need help to enhance their traditional practices and protect their land of constant illegal invasions due to unsustainable practices.

Meli enhances regenerative practices related to the care of native bees through two main technologies: (1) development of database to support best available practices regarding beekeeping, and (2) geotechnology to monitore the forest where the bee sanctuary, where native bees can keep their ecosystem services. For that, we work in partnership with local communities and research institutes.

 we organize workshops, establish and monitore beehive areas and develop agroforestry practices to ensure the floral fields needed.

A database about the native bees and their floral preferences will be developed, as well scientific studies together with local research institutes and communities, to support our activities.

The implementation of consistent standard to the beekeeping activities and its products will allow the next steps of commercialisation to take place.

We directly benefit the protectors of the forest, with focus in 3 groups: rural, quilombola and indigenous communities. Meli team was raised in the Amazon, including members with indigenous and quilombola heritage. Our deep connection with the environment, it's society and problems, allow us to to deeply understand its needs. Our solutions are being developed together with indigenous, quilombolas and rural community leaders, sitting in the same table and addressing the most needed issues, that might slightly vary to each community.

The main challenge Meli will solve is the lack of technical support and monitoring to the local communities, which are left vulnerable to unsustainable practices. Exemples for that are the invasions of community land by activities such as illegal mining and land grabbing.

Meli's solution will imply a change in three main aspects, the first in improving the environment, with sustainable practices that help in the maintenance of the local forest and improve food production; the second is related to the economy, with the generation of jobs and income through the commercialisation of bee-related products; and, finally, with the cultural heritage conservation, combining traditional knowledge to science and technology in partnership with universities and research institutes in the region.

Bees are crucial to the food production, not only due to their direct products, such as honey and pollen, but also, due to the food production boost they are responsible for.

Taking a look in the local food production in the Amazon, recent studies shown that the açai plant produces 40% more with the help of native bees, showing the success of the combination of native plants and native bees.

Meli brings an innovative holistic approach connecting (1) social factors, (2) science-based practices regarding native biodiversity and (3) remote sensing based on geotechnology for monitoring large areas.

Our existing relationships of belonging and/or trust with communities in the region, allow us to carry out long-term work and innovate with community science introduction. This is an important tool for education and production of scientific research based on community needs.

Meli’s strong technical background brings the best available practices towards native bees, which have great potential in the production of honey and boost food production. From biology, the Amazonian native bees known as meliponini, have a atrophied stinger, not used for self-defense, allowing the closer interaction with the whole community, including elderly and children.

The use of geotechnologies is an innovation needed to assure the safeguard of the communities' land. Traditional communities often have large areas including primary forest reserves. The protection of this land is crucial, currently so often invaded by activities as illegal mining and land grabbing.

It is worth mentioning that Meli has no local direct competitors, although there are institutions researching native bees interested in impact communities. We see that as partnership opportunities, as our relationship with IFPA and UFRA shows. In other Amazon areas, the work of Instituto Peabiru is notable, but it is important to mention Meli differs with strong partnership with Universities and the location of work, being focused on the most endangered areas of the Amazon, which currently lack support for long-term activities.

Our main solution is meliponiculture, care of native bees, using best available practices based in science, consistent standard of production and products and supported by regenerative agriculture, when needed.

For that, (1) a database will be developed to with the data related to the local native bee species and their floral preferences; and (2) remote sensing geotechnology will be used to monitor and protect the communities' land where the activities are being developed.

The database is currently developed as MVP as preparation for a future software. The goal is to safeguard data related to the bee's location, productivity, floral preferences, among others. It is known that there's still a lack of information about native bee species in the Amazon, reason why this database will be crucial for the discovery of new bee species, firstly in the Amazon region, but with the potential for expansion.

To protect and monitore large areas of primary forest and regenerative agricultural where the projects are taking place, drone and satellite image will be needed for the remote sensing to be developed. With a team of geologists specialised in this area, we would be able to document ilegal activities. The challenge to monitore large areas in the Amazon is a well-known problem for the authorities, which are unable to deal with all the illegal practices currently taking place, particularly in the area known as "arc of deforestation". The contact with the local authorities and international environment will be key factors for the success of this technology.

Bees are crucial to a safe environment. Tropical forests depend in 94% to the pollinators (Ollerton et al., 2011). Studies also show native bees to increase 40% of the açaí productivity. Even for self-fertile flowers need cross-pollination to improve production and quality of seeds and fruits.

To work with the native bees of a bioregion makes the whole environment healthier – including the local communities. The beekeeping would bring a regenerative activity to face the unsustainable practices, as illegal mining and land grabbing. It is important to highlight the need of geotechnologies to monitor and protect the areas, as 99% of the Brazilian deforestation happens illegally (MapBiomas, 2020).

The traditional and rural communities are very motivated to work with beekeeping activities, as shown by Meli’s first activities. Financed by crowdfunding, two workshops were made between the end of 2019 and start of 2020. The activities not only showed a good result, having led to the care of beehives healthy until today, but also called the attention of other local communities. Nowadays Meli counts with a network involving 16 beekeepers and communities interested in working with us, developing sustainable practices in their land and improve their food sovereignty.

Inputs: (1) Establishment and care of "bee houses" with consistent standard of production. (2) Meliponiculture workshops to train local community members. (3) Studies with research institutes. (4) Science divulgation activities in various languages to share the knowledge with global community. (5) Develop regenerative agriculture practices to ensure floral field in case of degraded areas. (6) Develop database of native bees and their floral preferences to support meliponiculture and regenerative agriculture activities. (7) Monitor floral fields with geotechnologies of remote sensing. (8) Next phase: commercialisation of bee-related products.

Outputs: (1) Commercialisation of regenerative bee related products. (2) Higher environmental education. (3) Local production of science. (4)Enhance local food production. (5) Production of bee related products. (6) Economic viability to environmentally sustainable practices. (7) Organization of local groups of Amazon protection. (8) Care of Amazonian natuve bees. (9) Reforestation of important forest areas. (10) Protection of Amazon areas. (11) Diminish unsustainable practices in the Amazon area. (12) Sales of products locally produced. (13) Diminish industrialised food consumption.

Outcomes: (1) Scientific discoveries locally made. (2) Communities with healthier diets. (3) Food sovereignty. (4) Community resilience. (5) Cultural Heritage Conservation. (6) Healthier local economy. (7) Protection of the Amazon rainforest. (8) Positive impacts regarding climate change. (9) Carbon sequestering. (10) Biodiversity protection.

Currently, Meli is connected with 16 beekeepers and/or communities interested on developing projects with us (at the moment we only held our first activities as prove of concept. We directly impact two families in an Kayapó indigenous communities, where currently 40 families live).

In the first in one year Meli will directly serve 180 families ( ca. 720 persons), as a result of the 6 first projects we are going to develop.

In five years, Meli will impact 1.500 families (ca. 6.000 persons).

Within the next year we would like to establish 6 projects, with 180 families, with 40 bee hives, in average, per project and, approx. 240 beehives in the network, with the potential to produce 1.200 litres of honey per year.

In the next five years we would like to monitore and protect 100.000 ha of Amazon forest involved in our projects, reforest 1.000 ha with regenerative agriculture practices, impact 1.500 families and a network of 5.000 beehives, with the potential to produce 25.000 litres of honey per year.

One of our current challenges has been the issue of monitoring the areas that will be reforested for regenerative agriculture and the forest areas that we are committed to preserving.

The legal challenges regarding production certification and start the commercialisation and possible importation of products.

To monitor large areas in the Amazon, we will need the support with geotechnologies of remote sensing. In our team we have a geologist with little experience in remote sensing, but who is studying the possibility of monitoring via satellite analysis. We are looking for partners in this field.

Meli is looking for legal support to address the legal requirements together with our technical team.

Full-time staff: 4 (all-female: geologist and agronomical, forest and materials engineering).

Part-time/contractors: 9 (translator, graphic designer, illustrator, bee specialist, regenerative agriculture specialist, traditional and rural communities relations).

(All staff currently working as volunteers).

Community Leaders and Bee Keepers: 16.

Research partners: IFPA Campus Rural de Marabá, UFRA Parauapebas.

Meli's all-female core team was raised in the Amazon and have an especial position of understanding of the local problems and a deep relationship with the local communities.

Ana, Materials Engineer, was raised in the “arc of deforestation” and is a passionated connector to solve problems with deep local perspective and global mindset. Her experiences living in Australia and Germany (where she is currently living, brought by a PhD position) gave her a deeper contact with the global community. She's also a podcaster bringing topics related to social and environmental questions. Dorília, MSc in Geology, originally from a small village in the Amazon area, keeps contact with her quilombola heritage even after the Master studies in São Paulo. She is also an illustrator, developing scientific illustrations for Meli and assists our relationship with quilombola communities. Luiza, Forestry Eng., has been working for 5 years in the area of ​​Palynology (Pollen Study) and its applications. She is currently doing a master's degree at Instituto Tecnológico Vale in the research group: Biodiversity and ecosystem services, where her master's dissertation covers palinoecology, which studies the interactions of plants and bees from the pollen load collected on the body of bees. Thalita, Agronomic Engineering student (last year) at the Federal Rural University of the Amazon and has been working in the field of meliponiculture and beekeeping with rural communities for the last 4 years. During her internship at Instituto Tecnológico Vale, she researched the ecosystem services provided by bees.

Thought for Food (TFF) is supporting us with mentoring and access to an international community. Meli was selected for the Regenerative Agriculture Prize TFF x reNature prize.

IFPA - Campus Rural de Marabá and UFRA Parauapebas are two public Brazilian Universities in South Pará working with native bees. IFPA Campus Rural de Marabá hosted the first workshop organised by Meli, for a Kayapó indigenous community, in October of 2019.
We are interested in partnerships with both Universities to enhance the local science production and positively impact the local community and native bees.

Key activities: (1) Establishment and care of "bee houses" with consistent standard of production. (2) Meliponiculture workshops to train local community members. (3) Studies with research institutes. (4) Science divulgation activities in various languages to share the knowledge with global community. (5) Develop regenerative agriculture practices to ensure floral field in case of degraded areas. (6) Develop database of native bees and their floral preferences to support meliponiculture and regenerative agriculture activities. (7) Monitor floral fields via remote sensing. (8) Next phase: commercialisation of bee-related products.

Key resources and Revenue: For the establishment of the production, support via foundations and donations will be needed. In parallel, projects will be supported via carbon credits and "rent" of bees to increase pollination and food production. After the second year, economic sustainability will be reached with the help of sales of bee-related products, such as honey, pollen and wax.

Segments and Channels: (1) the traditional communities in the Amazon we already have deep connection with, reachable via phone, radio, whatsapp, social media, etc., showing the testimonial from previous activities to involve new members. (2) Foundations interested in social and environmental impact. (3) Social and environmentally conscious people interested in our products.

Value Proposition: Beneficiary will development beekeeping and regenerative agriculture practices; Impact measured through number of: families impacted, beehives, litres of honey produced, hectares of primary forest protected, hectares of reforestation via regenerative agriculture. Costumer will benefit from the protection of primary forest and reforest of degraded land, plus regenerative bee-products.

We are applying for Solve because we want to be involved in a global community of people solving world's biggest problems.

Once Meli was selected for the TFF Regenerative Agriculture Prize, I was able to attend to a Solve event online. I had a great experience! I could see an environment I would love to participate, where the Solvers got in touch with foundations and a support environment of people engaged to solve world's biggest problems.

The partnerships could connect us with people with more experience to advise and mentor us, as well give us larger exposure to an international community.

We would like to partner with Entomology, Palynology and remote sensing specialists around the world and foundations that could support the start of our activities.

We would be very interested in the support of the EAPS, The Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at MIT. We would seek a partnership with EAPS to support our research about the Amazon and Climate Change and the application of remote sensing as monitoring tool to protect the forest.

Meli core team is a full-female and from STEM areas. In this way, almost automatically, we partner with groups we had previous contact with: indigenous schools led by women (Escola Indígena Estadual E.I.E.M. Pàrkre Jimôkre), quilombola women association (Mulheres da Associação de remanescentes de quilombos de São Tomé do Bracinho do Icatú) and women working with the care of native bees (Associação Filhas do Mel da Amazônia).

This support would be specially important for the advance of the geotechnology, being developed with one of the co-founders, Dorília Cunha, a female Geologist with master at USP and Amazonian-Quilombola heritage. The geotechnology would allow us use remote sensing to monitor and protect large areas of primary forest, mainly from traditional (indigenous and quilombolas) communities in the Amazon. These areas would be bee pasture and allow beekeeping activities led by women.

The traditional communities usually have large areas of reserve, but face challenges with invasion of illegal unsustainable practices in their land. It is crucial that our team is able to ensure the protection of the forest.

Meli intends to commercialise the bee-production made by the Amazon communities to reach a more stable financial sustainability through a for-profit solution to impact, in the first years, hundreds of families and the potential to impact much more.

But for that, Meli will face a legalisation process and need a strong physical structure with bee house, and other requirements. The Future Planet Capital Prize would be used to start the adequate honey production and reach the desired markets. 

It is needed to enhance traditional practices, to reach financially viability and have the ability to substitute unsustainable practices, such as ilegal mining and land grabbing, which currently devastate the worlds largest tropical forest. This prize would allow Meli to protect the most endangered areas of the Amazon, reach a regenerative local economy and a large positive impact in the global clima.